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Firm-level innovation activity, employee turnover and HRM practices — Evidence from Chinese firms

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  • Eriksson, Tor
  • Qin, Zhihua
  • Wang, Wenjing

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between employee turnover, HRM practices and innovation in Chinese firms in five high technology sectors. We estimate hurdle negative binomial models for count data on survey data allowing for analyses of the extensive as well as intensive margins of firms' innovation activities. Innovation is measured both by the number of ongoing projects and new commercialized products. The results show that higher R&D employee turnover is associated with a higher probability of being innovative, but decreases the intensity of innovation activities in innovating firms. Innovating firms are more likely to have adopted high performance HRM practices, and the impact of employee turnover varies with the number of HRM practices implemented by the firm.

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  • Eriksson, Tor & Qin, Zhihua & Wang, Wenjing, 2014. "Firm-level innovation activity, employee turnover and HRM practices — Evidence from Chinese firms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 583-597.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:30:y:2014:i:c:p:583-597
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2014.02.005
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    3. Adele Finco & Deborah Bentivoglio & Giorgia Bucci, 2018. "Lessons of Innovation in the Agrifood Sector: Drivers of Innovativeness Performances," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 20(2), pages 181-192.
    4. Latukha, M. & Veselova, A. & Selivanovskikh, L. & Artukh, E. & Mitskevich, E., 2016. "Re-thinking the role of talent management in a firm’s performance: Talent management practices and absorptive capacity," Working Papers 6442, Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University.
    5. Pushkarev, A. A., 2018. "Cluster analysis of regional innovation activity in Russia in 2010-2015," R-Economy, Ural Federal University, Graduate School of Economics and Management, vol. 4(1), pages 10-17.
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    8. Grinza, Elena & Quatraro, Francesco, 2019. "Workers’ replacements and firms’ innovation dynamics: New evidence from Italian matched longitudinal data," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    9. Trinh Chieu & Tam Nguyen, 2018. "Slack resources and innovation in Vietnamese SMEs: A behavioural, stewardship, and institutional perspective," WIDER Working Paper Series 78, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
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    12. Zhang, Dongyang & Zheng, Wenping & Ning, Lutao, 2018. "Does innovation facilitate firm survival? Evidence from Chinese high-tech firms," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 458-468.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Innovation; HRM practices; Employee turnover;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • M50 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - General
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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