인적자본은 언제 기업의 혁신성과를 향상시킬 수 있는가?

When Does Human Capital Facilitate the Corporate Innovation Performance?: The Moderating Effect of International Experience

Purpose - This study investigates the relationship between firm-specific, general human capital and corporate innovation performance. Also, we examine when this relationship is more salient. Design/methodology/approach - We collected 1,195 survey data related to a sample of corporate innovation performance and human capital from 1) Korea Research for Vocational Education and Training and 2) NICE information service in Korea. In order to examine the corporate innovation performance, we use the ordered logit model. Findings - First, we find robust supports for our hypothesis that firm-specific and general human capital increase corporate innovation performance. Second, the effect of general human capital on corporate innovation performance is stronger when this relationship is combined with the firm international experience. Research implications or Originality - By integrating the human capital theory and corporate innovation literature, we propose that firm-specific and general human capital are the important determinant of innovation performance. The firm-specific human capital may increase innovation efficiencies. Also, retaining higher-quality general human capital is considered as an important innovation strategy since firms with higher-quality general human capital make greater innovation performance. Further, we show that the firm international experience is the crucial boundary condition. As a firm’s experience in internationalization increases, firms can enhance the opportunities to develop new products by combining the skills and knowledge derived from general human capital with the experience gained through internationalization.