Impacts of high-involvement HRM practices on organizational innovation capability: the mediating mechanism of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing

Abstract

Purpose

Given the important role of knowledge sharing (KS) processes for organizational innovation, the purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating roles of tacit and explicit KS in bridging the relationship between high-involvement human resource management (HRM) practices and specific aspects of innovation capability, namely, product and process innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

Analysis of moment structures and structural equation modeling are applied to examine the correlation among the constructs based on the survey data collected from 111 manufacturing and service firms.

Findings

The empirical findings reveal that KS processes positively mediate the relationship between high-involvement HRM practices and innovation capability. It highlights the important role of explicit KS in fostering aspects of innovation capability compared to the effects of tacit KS on aspect of innovation capability.

Practical implications

Vietnamese firms should pay much attention to high-involvement HRM practices to improve their innovation capabilities. In addition, fostering the willingness of employees for sharing tacit knowledge (e.g. experiences, uncommon understandings and insights) and explicit knowledge (e.g. formal information, official documents and reports and procedures and policies) is one of the most optimal solutions for firms to pursuit product and process innovation capability.

Originality/value

This paper significantly contributes to increasing knowledge and insights on the correlation between high-involvement HRM practices and specific forms of innovation. The understanding on mediating role of KS processes contributes to advancing the body of knowledge of HRM practices and innovation theory.

Citation

Cao, T.T., Le, P.B. and Nguyen, N.T.M. (2022), "Impacts of high-involvement HRM practices on organizational innovation capability: the mediating mechanism of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing", International Journal of Innovation Science, Vol. 14 No. 5, pp. 733-749. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJIS-05-2021-0091