Flexibility and innovation: moderator effects of cooperation and dynamism
| Date | 02 September 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-12-2017-0397 |
| Pages | 1548-1564 |
| Published date | 02 September 2019 |
| Author | Ángel Martínez-Sánchez,Maria-Jose Vela-Jimenez,Silvia Abella-Garces,Sophie Gorgemans |
| Subject Matter | Hr & organizational behaviour,Global hrm |
Flexibility and innovation:
moderator effects of cooperation
and dynamism
Ángel Martínez-Sánchez, Maria-Jose Vela-Jimenez and
Silvia Abella-Garces
Direccion y Organizacion de Empresas,
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain, and
Sophie Gorgemans
Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
Abstract
Purpose –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.
Design/methodology/approach –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.
Findings –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.
Research limitations/implications –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.
Practical implications –Managers should use a right mix of external flexibility measures according to the
inter-organizational cooperation but regardless the level of environmental dynamism.
Originality/value –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.
Keywords Cooperation, Quantitative, Innovation, Environmental dynamism,
External human resource flexibility
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Global competition and expanding customer expectations create nowadays the need for
more and faster innovation. A firm’s capacity to innovate is the ability to adopt or
implement new ideas, processes or products successfully. This capacity enables the firm to
achieve a competitive advantage and higher performance. Among the factors influencing
innovation, several scholars have recently paid attention to how different workplace
relationships impact on human resources’(HRs) attitude and commitment toward
innovative behaviors (e.g. Martinez-Sánchez et al., 2011; Kato and Zhou, 2018). However, the
literature is not conclusive about the impact of different HR flexibility dimensions on
Personnel Review
Vol. 48 No. 6, 2019
pp. 1548-1564
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-12-2017-0397
Received 23 December 2017
Revised 21 June 2018
2 August 2018
18 September 2018
Accepted 15 October 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
The authors greatly appreciate the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation
(Grant ECO2014-56912-R), and the access to the Survey of Business Strategies provided by the SEPI
Foundation and the Spanish Ministry of Industry.
1548
PR
48,6
innovation; whereas some arguments emphasize the need to build and sustain a committed
and permanent workforce, other arguments support that looser employment relationships
are beneficial for innovation. Flexibility is important to innovate because firms must be able
to adapt to changes that are sometimes unpredictable. There are several sources of
flexibility for a firm but we focus on HR flexibility because it is a common base to develop
other dimensions of flexibility (Karuppan, 2004; Upton, 1995). For instance, high-skilled and
polyvalent employees (functional flexibility) may contribute with innovative ideas to update
the firm’s stock of knowledge. Therefore, HR flexibility is important to develop intangible
resources than can be sources of sustainable competitive advantages. However, whereas the
literature usually agrees that internal dimensions, like functional flexibility, enhance
employees’innovative behaviors and performance, the contribution of external dimensions
are not so conclusive.
In this sense, scholars have found that the external dimensions of HR flexibility
(temporary employment, contracting firms, etc.) contribute differently to innovation than
the more homogeneous contribution of internal dimensions such as functional flexibility
(e.g. Martinez-Sánchez et al., 2011). For instance, external flexibility could give, on the one
hand, specialized knowledge and innovation opportunities to the firm; but on the other hand,
hiring external employees who are less motivated and receive less training than in-house
employees could jeopardize the firm’s innovation efforts. The failure to include and analyze
moderators in most studies could explain the divergent relationships between external HR
flexibility and innovation. Firms need to clarify the differentiated contribution of external
HR flexibility to innovation performance in order to develop the right mix of flexibility.
Then there is a need for studies to analyze the relationships between external HR flexibility
and innovation according to the main moderator variables that could influence those
relationships. Analyzing moderator effects may be the key to understand better how each
type of external HR flexibility contributes to innovation. For instance, the use of temporary
employment or external R&D experts could be affected by moderators such as technological
cooperation and market dynamism.
Our paper contributesto the literature by analyzing simultaneously two moderator effects
on the relationships between external HR flexibility and innovation: inter-organizational
cooperationin technological activities;and environmental (market)dynamism. A large sample
of Spanish manufacturing firms provides the database to test our research hypotheses. The
study contributesto the literature in two main ways.First, the scarce studies with contingent
analysis have used only one moderator effect which limits the interactions between
environmental forces and internal strategies. By analyzing two moderators simultaneously,
our research could disentangle the opposite but interrelated effects of external flexibility
dimensions on innovation. For example, cooperation may influence the need to hire external
R&D experts on a temporary basis if the firmdoes not own all necessary resources;similarly,
high-dynamic markets may difficult the investment in new technologies and R&D experts
when firms do not have a clear technological trajectory.
Second, our study could help managers to understand what is the best combination of
external flexibility dimensions to be used under specific environmental conditions; for
instance, in our case according to the firm’s level of inter-organizational cooperation and
market dynamism. Examples of such questions: Are there different innovation effects from
hiring external R&D experts for high-cooperative firms or is innovation different among
firms facing more intense market changes? Are there different negative effects from
temporary employment on innovation for low-cooperative firms or less market dynamism?
The key questions of this study are then how both moderators could enhance or diminish
the effect of temporary employment and external R&D experts on innovation.
Our approach incorporates more explanations about the contingent validity of external
HR flexibility. We further extend prior research findings by developing arguments that link
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Flexibility and
innovation
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