Human capital investment and innovation success in the telecoms sector in South Africa
Date
2017
Authors
Tshabuse, Abraham Takalani
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Abstract
Innovation is one of the core and key characteristics of entrepreneurship, which
stimulates operational and financial success of a firm. Innovation is ambidextrous
in nature, characterised by exploration and exploitation. This report is concerned
with exploitative innovation, which is characterised by new; products, services,
and processes. This Research Report investigates how human capital
investments (years of schooling and years of work experience of telecoms firms’
senior managers and executives) relate to innovation performance. This paper
uses the human capital theory and the resource base theory to understand the
perceived impact of human capital investments on performance and also its
perceived moderation effect on the nexus between innovation and performance.
Research findings from 81 senior management and executives of four major
telecoms firms in South Africa indicate that innovation has a perceived direct
impact on the perceived success of the firm. However, a counterintuitive
relationship of human capital investments with performance is observed.
Furthermore, human capital investments have a counterintuitive moderating
effect on the nexus between innovation and performance. Therefore, this
research report discusses human capital variable configurations that are more
likely to have a perceived impact on a telecoms firm performance, and human
capital variable configuration that are likely to have a moderating effect on the
nexus between innovation and performance.
Description
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and
Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Management specialising in
Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation.
Wits Business School, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
(March 2017)
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Citation
Tshabuse, Abraham Takalani (2017) Human capital investment and innovation success in the telecoms sector in South Africa, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <http://hdl.handle.net/10539/23421>