“Lean in”: the moderating effect of female ownership on the relationship between human capital and organizational innovation
| Date | 25 July 2020 |
| Pages | 792-814 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-10-2019-0236 |
| Published date | 25 July 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Knowledge management,HR & organizational behaviour,Organizational structure/dynamics,Accounting & finance,Accounting/accountancy,Behavioural accounting |
| Author | Yanli Fu,Ruiming Liu,Jifeng Yang,Hao Jiao,Yuke Jin |
“Lean in”: the moderating effect of
female ownership on the
relationship between human
capital and
organizational innovation
Yanli Fu
Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang, China
Ruiming Liu
The National Academy of Development and Strategy, Renmin University of China,
Beijing, China
Jifeng Yang and Hao Jiao
Business School, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China, and
Yuke Jin
Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Abstract
Purpose –With the aim of shedding new light on the characteristics of human capital in its relationship with
organizational innovation, this paper develops a novel theoretical and empirical exploration of the
characteristics of human capital, both executives’experience and employees’average education level, as
well as the moderating effect of female ownership, on two different aspects of organizational innovation.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were obtained from the World Bank’s China private manufacturing
enterprise questionnaire survey. The study employs regression analysis of a logistic model using 1,598
samples, because the dependent variable of an organization’s innovation index is a binary variable.
Findings –Using World Bank survey data of Chinese private manufacturing enterprises, the authors find that
executives’experience has a significantly positive effect on process innovation. Female ownership strengthens
the relationship between executives’experience and process innovation. Moreover, the results indicate that
employees’average educational level has a significantly positive effect on product innovation. Female
ownership strengthens the relationships between employees’average educational level and organizational
innovation including product innovation and process innovation. This study highlights the importance of
simultaneously testing the effects of human capital and gender heterogeneity on organizational innovation
activities.
Originality/value –This study explores the impact of human capital on organizational innovation activities
in the context of the Chinese manufacturing industry. Moreover, organizational innovation activities are
divided into two aspects: product innovation and process innovation. This study separately discusses the effect
of human capital on these two kinds of innovation in detail. Finally, female ownership is selected as a
moderating variable, and it is demonstrated that interactions of female owners withexecutives’experience and
employees’average educational level have a positive impact on increasing different kinds of organizational
innovation. The authors identify new boundary conditions for the domain of female research that are sorely
lacking in the present literature.
Keywords Human capital, Executives’experience, Employees’average educational level, Organizational
innovation, Female ownership
Paper type Research paper
JIC
22,4
792
The authors are indebted to JIC editor Prof. Merrill Warkentin and anonymous reviewers for their many
constructive insights and suggestions in improving this article. This work was supported by National
Natural Science Foundation of China (71572017) and National Social Science Foundation’s major project
of China (19ZDA077).
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1469-1930.htm
Received 11 October 2019
Revised 27 February 2020
9 May 2020
Accepted 2 July 2020
Journal of Intellectual Capital
Vol. 22 No. 4, 2021
pp. 792-814
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1469-1930
DOI 10.1108/JIC-10-2019-0236
1. Introduction
According to the theory of organizational innovation, technological progress and innovation
are the key factors promoting economic growth (Mohr et al., 1976;Hekkert and Negro, 2009).
These innovations are further categorized into product and process innovations (Damanpour
and Gopalakrishnan, 2001). Product innovation and process innovations have often been
posited to contribute to organizational sustainable competitiveness and performance in
complementary ways (Guisado-Gonz
alez et al., 2017). Product innovation is designed to
satisfy customers’demand for new products or executives’desire to capture new markets,
whereas process innovation is designed to improve the efficiency of delivery or decrease
operational costs (Martinez-Ros, 2000). For manufacturing enterprises, innovation activities
mainly refer to technological innovation activities, involving the generation and adoption of
new products, services and processes (Damanpour, 1991). Thus, these activities are more
directly related to manufacturing enterprises’core work than other types of innovations
(Zahra and Covin, 1994). Innovation activities help firms improve their performance (Vrontis
et al., 2016) and establish or maintain long-term competitive advantage (Ferraris et al., 2017).
In this study, we focus on two aspects of organizational innovation: product innovation
and process innovation. This study focuses on organizational innovations in manufacturing
industry. These innovations are further categorized into product and process innovations
(Damanpour and Gopalakrishnan, 2001). Product innovation is defined as new products or
services introduced to meet an external customer’s need (Damanpour, 1991;Damanpour and
Gopalakrishnan, 2001). Process innovation is defined as new methods introduced into a firm’s
production or service operation (Damanpour and Gopalakrishnan, 2001). From a market
orientation perspective, product innovation and process innovation occur interdependently
to contribute to firm industry status. However, these ambidextrous innovation activities raise
new challenges for human resource management (Ferraris et al., 2019).
Both product innovation and process innovation are assumed to be determined differently
by various organizational factors (Cohen and Klepper, 1996;Fritsch and Meschede, 2001).
Prior studies indicate that enterprises’competitiveness and organizational value tend to
depend increasingly on human capital assets (Ginesti et al., 2018;Lerro et al., 2014). Human
capital comprises the main body of enterprise innovation and is thus is one of the most
fundamental and important factors that affect innovation activities and core competitiveness
(Wang et al., 2009). With the development of the knowledge economy, corporate talents with
substantial knowledge and technological skills have become one of the most important
resources (Romer, 1990;Murray et al., 2016). Knowledge management plays a key role in
determining the outcomes of firm’s external and internal embeddedness (Dezi et al., 2019).
Schultz (1961) believes that human capital is the capital of knowledge, experience, skills and
physical strength reflected in employees.
Human capital research can be broadly divided into macro and micro research.
Macro-human capital research studies the impact of human capital investment on the
economy from the perspective of national or regional economic growth, while micro-human
capital focuses on the investment of learning experiences, work experience, training and
knowledge skills of individual employees (Mourad and Dirk, 2004;Marvel and Lumpkin,
2007). Existing studies have confirmed that a country’s and region’s human capital
investment can contribute to sustained economic growth (Wang et al., 2009;Carrillo and
Batra, 2009). At the corporate level, an enterprise’s human capital can also be a driving force
for sustainable competitive advantage. At present, an important issue in strategic human
resource management is the influence of human capital on innovation capability and how to
improve the innovation capability of an enterprise by increasing its investment in human
capital. Becker (1962) believes that human capital can be divided into general human capital
and specific human capital. General human capital is useful in many companies and can
increase the marginal productivity of enterprise employees. Specific human capital is divided
The
moderating
effect of female
ownership
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