Knowledge-based human resource management practices, intellectual capital and innovation

Abstract

This paper proposes a conceptual model in which a human resource management (HRM) system of explicitly knowledge-based HRM practices impacts a firm's intellectual capital, producing higher innovation performance. We have empirically tested this idea in a survey dataset of 180 Spanish companies using structural equation modelling (SEM) based on partial least squares (PLS). The results show that intellectual capital positively mediates the relationship between knowledge-based HRM practices and innovation performance and illustrate the pivotal role of human capital in this relationship: knowledge-based HRM practices impact structural and relational capital partially through human capital, and human capital affects innovation performance by enhancing structural and relational capital.