The impact of upper and lower echelon human capital and HR practices on innovation in start-ups.

Abstract Innovative start-ups have become the center of attention in government policy. They are considered to be the driving force of economic growth and international competitive advantage. Despite this growing interest, little is known about firm internal determinants of and critical success factors for innovation in newly established firms. Innovation is a function of a firm's ability to create, manage and maintain knowledge. Since knowledge is created by and stored within individuals, human resources as well as HR practices may play an important role as drivers of innovation in start-ups. We expect that start-ups having superior human resources (both owners/managers and employees) and an intensive HRM, are more able to innovate. Results show that unless employees' human capital is managed, it provides little benefit to start-ups in terms of innovation. Moreover, the impact of HRM intensity is higher in start-ups with high human capital as compared to newly established firms with low human capital. Next, innovation is indirectly (through the mediating effect of employees' human capital and/or HRM) and positively affected by the owners/managers' educational level and the appeal to certified experts. Industry experience, in turn, has an indirect negative impact. The number of independent board members directly and positively influences innovation.Employees; Human capital; Human resource management; Innovation; Startups;

'HRM and performance', research without theory? A literature review.

Due to the increasingly intense global competition and the corresponding search for sources of sustained competitive advantage during the last thirty years, the interest in strategic management has risen, both among academics and practitioners. This evolution resulted in various organisational functions becoming more concerned with their role in the strategic management process. The Human Resource Management field has similarly sought to become integrated into this process through the development of a new discipline referred to as Strategic Human Resource Management. One of the central issues that has been studied in the field of SHRM is the HRM-performance relationship. Despite the pile of studies on this topic, it has been criticised for its lack of a strong theoretical foundation. The purpose of this literature review is to make a journey of exploration through the (S)HRM-performance literature and to map out the different theories that can be useful in understanding and explaining the complex relationship between these two variables. This 'theory mapping' should enable us to decide upon the presence or absence of theory within this research field. Our main conclusion is that this field does not suffer from a lack of theories. On the contrary, the existing theories include economical, sociological as well as psychological perspectives and all together they shed some light on how HRM might be determined and how the mechanisms within the black box might work. Moreover, conditions are proposed under which HRM can lead to higher performance. The real problems researchers are coping with can be summarised as follows: (1) the difficulties the (combination of) present theories impose on empirical research, (2) a lack of theory building with regard to the concepts of HRM and performance and their measurement and (3) the constant theoretical reorientation because of the ever returning criticism.Competition; Competitive advantage; Field; Functions; Human resource management; Management; Measurement; Performance; Problems; Processes; Researchers; Resource management; Strategic management; Studies; Theory; Variables;

How does the Introduction of an ETF Market with Liquidity Providers Impact the Liquidity of the Underlying Stocks?.

This article examines how the inception of an ETF market impacts several dimensions of the liquidity of the ETF-underlying-index stocks. In contrast with previous research, our evidence is based on an ETF market where liquidity providers (LPs) act as market makers. We find that: (1) the market for the underlying stocks becomes more liquid after the ETF ntroduction for investors who trade at the best-limit quotes; (2) but the stock market becomes ess deep for larger traders, most probably because some large liquidity traders exit the underlying stocks’ market for the ETF market. Some statistics suggest that those results could be related to the trading activity of ETF LPs.Transaction Costs; Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF); Index Trading;

Triazolinediones as highly enabling synthetic tools

Triazolinediones (TADs) are unique reagents in organic synthesis that have also found wide applications in different research disciplines, in spite of their somewhat "exotic" reputation. In this review, we offer two case studies that demonstrate the possibilities of these versatile and reliable synthetic tools, namely, in the field of polymer science as well as in more recently emerging applications in the field of click chemistry. As the general use of triazolinediones has always been hampered by the limited commercial and synthetic availability of such reagents, we also offer a review of the available TAD reagents, together with a detailed discussion of their synthesis and reactivity. This review thus aims to serve as a practical guide for researchers that are interested in exploiting and further developing the exceptional click -like reactivity of triazolinediones in various applications

How HRM affects corporate financial performance: Evidence from Belgian SMEs.

In this paper, we provide a summary of several results from a study of HRM in small and medium-sized enterprises in Belgium. The central issue is whether the investment in HRM practices for smaller organizations is 'profitable'. This study differs in three ways from existing research. (1) It deals with the results from a survey of organizations with between 10 and 100 employees from various sectors. (2) In composing an index for 'HRM intensity', we started with a different interpretation of HRM practices, which also fits in more closely with the Belgian institutional context. (3) The operationalization of performance is based on a number of financial indicators which also help determine the 'state of health' of a company. Using the results of the survey, we examined the link between the score for HRM intensity, some performance outcomes and the financial performance of the organization using structural equation modeling. The results show that intensive HRM also offers added value for smaller organizations. Firstly, HRM intensification has a highly positive effect on productivity and, through productivity, reduces personnel costs/added value. This effect is sufficiently strong to compensate for the increased costs associated with intensive HRM. On top of this 'compensation effect', HRM intensity also has major effects on the profitability of the company.