Search results

The purpose of this paper is to analyze simultaneously two moderator effects on a model of relationships between external human resource (HR) flexibility and innovation in a large sample of manufacturing firms.

The study sample consisted of 1,864 Spanish industrial firms in 2012 compiled from a large set of statements from the Survey of Business Strategies questionnaire. Logit and linear regressions tested the moderator effects of inter-organizational technology cooperation and environmental (market) dynamism in the relationship between external HR flexibility and innovation performance. To control for multicollinearity the Lance’s residual centering technique was used.

Process innovations seemed to be dependent on industry while innovative firms have developed a greater flexibility than non-innovative firms. Some moderator effects were found regarding inter-organizational cooperation while the market dynamism was negatively related to the measures of innovation with absence of moderator effects.

Future studies should integrate more moderator effects that may influence the relationship between external HR flexibility and the firm’s innovation performance. The results regarding the influences of external flexibility on innovation have to be differentiated as inter-organizational technological cooperation compensated the influence of external workplace flexibility on innovation.

Managers should use a right mix of external flexibility measures according to the inter-organizational cooperation but regardless the level of environmental dynamism.

This paper is original in the sense that it studies the relationship between external HR flexibility and innovation with the simultaneous moderator effect of inter-organizational technology cooperation and market dynamism. The value of the paper lies in the discussion of interrelated moderator effects in order to propose adequate strategies to develop external HR flexibility.

The study analyzes the relationship between human resources (HR) flexibility and absorptive capacity (AC) of knowledge in a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms. The purpose of the research is to analyze if firms with greater AC are more flexible than other firms and to assess the implications of different combinations of HR flexibility and AC for innovation.

The study sample consisted of 1,666 Spanish industrial firms in 2015 compiled from a large set of statements from the Survey of Business Strategies (SBS) questionnaire. The methodology includes a cluster analysis and a case study of selected firms. First, a k-means clustering analysis was carried out to explore how homogeneous are the SBS firms according to several HR flexibility and AC measures. The authors complement the clustering itself with some descriptive statistics for each cluster. Second, the statistical analysis is followed by a selection of case studies from industrial firms in different positions regarding innovation, AC, and HR flexibility. The information for the cases studies comes from secondary sources such as corporate governance reports and statements of managers and employees from company websites and public reports.

The empirical evidence indicates that some combinations of HR flexibility and AC are positively related to innovation outputs whereas others are not. Firms with greater AC, R&D effort and innovation outputs have less “bad” HR flexibility (external numerical flexibility from temporary employees and temporary help agencies) and more “good” HR flexibility (internal and external functional flexibility). On the contrary, firms with minimum or non-existent innovation and AC efforts have the highest levels of temporary employment and do not hire external R&D experts.

The limitations of the cross-sectional nature of the study make the authors cautious about any proposition that may suggest a causal relationship among the studied variables.

Managers should pay attention to the different implications of each HR flexibility dimension for innovation activities since innovative companies value more those HR flexibility dimensions that contribute to the dispersion of knowledge within the firm.

The authors propose a framework to analyze the combination of HR flexibility and AC most suitable to different types of firms. Based on the statistical analyses and the case studies, the authors propose some strategic implications useful for the management of human resources. The matrix's framework analyzes the firm's innovation strategies according to the interactions between AC and the mix of HR flexibility dimensions.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The dynamic capabilities theory indicates that uncertain environments necessitate firms’ dynamic capability. This study aims to examine how dynamic capability can be shaped based on cooperative goal interdependence with supply chain partners by focusing on the mediating role of strategic flexibility and the moderating role of human resource flexibility.

Questionnaire surveys were administered to firm presidents, chief executive officers, chief human resources officers (CHOs) and other senior managers at 300 firms located in China. The data collection process was carried out in one wave with multiple sources. Of the firms contacted, the sample in this study consisted of 233 matched “CHO-other top manager” dyads. Structural equation modeling and the bias-corrected bootstrap method were used to test the proposed causal relationships, moderation model, mediation model and moderated mediation model.

Cooperative goal interdependence with both upstream companies and downstream companies was positively related to dynamic capability and strategic flexibility mediated these main effects. Moreover, human resource flexibility moderated the positive direct relationship between strategic flexibility and dynamic capability and the indirect relationships among cooperative goals, strategic flexibility and dynamic capability such that these relationships in companies with high human resource flexibility were stronger than these relationships in companies with low human resource flexibility.

The findings contribute to the literature on dynamic capability by providing empirical evidence regarding the relationships among cooperative goals, strategic flexibility, human resource flexibility and dynamic capability, which enriches the theory of cooperation and competition and suggests a new path to promote dynamic capability.

Creativity and innovation have been buzzwords of managerial discourse over the last few decades as they contribute to the long-term survival and competitiveness of firms. Given the non-linear, causally ambiguous, and intangible nature of all innovation-related phenomena, management scholars have been trying to uncover factors that contribute to creativity and innovation from multiple lenses ranging from organizational behavior at the micro-level to strategic management at the macro-level. Along with important and insightful developments in these research streams that evolved independently from one another, human resource management (HRM) research – especially from a strategic perspective – has only recently started to contribute to a better understanding of both creativity and innovation. The goal of this chapter is to review the contributions of strategic HRM research to an improved understanding of creativity at the individual-level and innovation at the firm-level. In organizing this review, the authors rely on the open innovation funnel as a metaphor to review research on both HRM practices and HRM systems that contribute to creativity and innovation. In the last section, the authors focus on more recent developments in HRM research that focus on ambidexterity – as a way for HRM to simultaneously facilitate exploration and exploitation. This chapter concludes with a discussion of future research directions.

Looks at the 2000 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference held at the University of Cardiff in Wales on 6/7 September 2000. Spotlights the 76 or so presentations within and shows that these are in many, differing, areas across management research from: retail finance; precarious jobs and decisions; methodological lessons from feminism; call centre experience and disability discrimination. These and all points east and west are covered and laid out in a simple, abstract style, including, where applicable, references, endnotes and bibliography in an easy‐to‐follow manner. Summarizes each paper and also gives conclusions where needed, in a comfortable modern format.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether environmental dynamism can drive firms to adopt sustainability, taking into consideration the mediating role of the innovation process, strategic flexibility and human resource development in this relationship.

The proposed framework is tested by confirmatory factor analysis and finally structural equation modeling (SEM) using the survey data from 513 Greek firms.

The results show that environmental dynamism drives firms to sustainability, but the introduction of innovation process, strategic flexibility and human resource development fully mediate the effect of this relationship.

This study explores three organizational factors. In future research it would be very interesting to explore other topics that affect sustainability. Moreover, it might be useful for researchers to examine firms' digital capability and ambidextrous sustainability.

This study offers clear implications for managers, proving that innovation process, strategic flexibility and human resource development are critical factors in achieving sustainability.

This empirical study determines the contribution of environmental dynamism to sustainability taking into consideration the role of three critical organizational factors as mediators in this relationship.

The internet-based transition is the major trend for Chinese organizations with increasing demands imposed on their organization and management. As the organizational structures gradually improve flexibility, employees desire respect and development to a greater degree, which has given rise to a new leadership model-integrative leadership. This paper aims to investigate the impact of integrative leadership on employee’s innovation performance through a multilevel analysis.

This paper proposes the two situational factors employee psychological empowerment and human resource flexibility as the mediating factors impact the relationship between integrative leadership and employee innovation performance. Valid questionnaires were collected from 619 employees from 135 leader groups of High-tech companies in China.

The results show that integrative leadership has positive impact on employees’ innovation performance through its multilevel impacts on two mediation factors include psychological empowerment of employees and human resource flexibility.

This research used cross-sectional studies due to constraints of research conditions. The measurements of all variables are done simultaneously, whereas the effects of integrative leadership on the development of corporations should be presented in a dynamic process. Therefore, in the future research, vertical research design should be adopted to deeply explore the effectiveness mechanism of integrative leadership in the context of corporate internet-based transition.

In the internet era, leaders cannot blindly pursue organizational performance. They must establish a flexible organizational structure and institutions to provide a platform for employee development, and integrative leaders need to pay attention to inspire the potential of employees and stimulate the enthusiasm of employees.

This study investigates a new leadership-integrative leadership and the relationship between integrative leadership and innovation performance in the context of Internet-based transitional Chinese organizations, thereby making important theoretical contributions as well as offering practical suggestions for improving leadership efficiency and innovation performance.

The purpose of this paper is to study the implications of managing human resource (HR) flexibility and absorptive capacity (AC) of knowledge for the implementation of agile innovation methods in the new product development (NPD) process of manufacturing firms.

To achieve this, the authors have carried out a meta-analysis by defining first a research question that determines the design of bibliometric data and compilation. The study question is: How firms can support agile initiatives in innovation considering their HR flexibility and AC? The Web of Science Collection has been consulted in three steps with several search strings. The analysis of 161 references without duplicities in the period 1997–2021 provides the foundations for exploring the research question.

The authors propose research hypotheses to analyze the interrelationship between HR flexibility, AC and agile innovation according to the literature-based discussion. The authors have identified and develop metrics to pilot the transition to agile that have been also adapted to specific innovation departures points before the transition. The authors also propose and discuss some organizational changes and practical guidelines to pilot transitions to agile that should be useful to the firm’s strategic decision of implementing the most adequate type of agile innovation.

Even though flexibility and innovation are very important needs for many firms, agile schemes are still under-studied topics in the NPD of manufacturing firms. There are no specific studies in the literature that analyze the interrelationship between HR flexibility, AC and agile innovation, identifying common aspects and different approaches. Thus, this study is of original nature and the developed managerial tools, composed of metrics and organizational changes, will be useful to managers and permitted the authors to achieve the proposed goal.