인적자본과 기술혁신

Human Capital and Technological Innovation: The Moderating Effect of Internationalization

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between general human capital and technological innovation. At the same time, we investigate when this relationship is more salient. Design/Methodology/Approach This study collected 1,156 survey data observations from the Korea Research for Vocational Education and Training and the Korean Intellectual Property Office in South Korea. In order to examine the relationship among general human capital, technological innovation and internationalization, we use the negative binomial and Poisson regression analysis. Findings First, we find robust support for our hypothesis that general human capital increases technological innovation. Second, the effect of general human capital on technological innovation has more impactful when combined with firm internationalization as a complementary resource. Research Implications By integrating the human capital theory and resource-based view, we propose that general human capital, like traditional firm-specific human capital, is also the important determinant of technological innovation. Therefore, hiring more and higher-quality general human capital is considered as an important strategy in that firms with higher-quality general human capital achieve greater technological innovation outcome. Furthermore, we show that firm internationalization is the crucial boundary condition. As firms move forward in internationalization, the performance of technological innovation increases since firms can accumulate knowledge with know-how related to international experience, new skills and, trends in human capital.