Intellectual capital and employee innovative behavior in cross-border e-commerce enterprises: the moderating role of career sustainability
Journal of Intellectual Capital
ISSN: 1469-1930
Article publication date: 4 September 2023
Issue publication date: 17 November 2023
Abstract
Purpose
To cope with intensifying uncertainties coupled with the rapid advancement of information communication technology (ICT), understanding how to encourage employees' innovative workplace behavior (IWB) is imperative, with two motivational concerns: (1) the possession of critical knowledge resources characterized by intellectual capital (IC) to better reconfigure new and existing knowledge and (2) the development of career sustainability to handle ICT-enabled intricate job arrangements. The authors investigate the relationships among IC, career sustainability and IWB in Chinese cross-border e-commerce enterprises (CEEs), which are becoming increasingly prevalent and central to the global economy.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data collected from 417 participants employed in Chinese CEEs, the authors used regression analyses to test the authors' hypotheses.
Findings
Human capital (HC) and structural capital (SC) exerted inverted U-shaped influences on IWB, while relational capital (RC) was positively related to IWB. Perceived career sustainability positively moderated such associations between HC and IWB and between SC and IWB; perceived career sustainability negatively moderated the positive RC-IWB relationship.
Practical implications
Results can inform managers which components of IC and how managers are related to IWB so crucial for success of CEEs with ICT-enabled, intricate architectures of knowledge exchange. The authors' results can help global managers and policymakers to more appropriately allocate scarce knowledge resources to maximize innovative behaviors in the highly competitive international business context.
Originality/value
From the knowledge-based view (KBV) of firm innovation, the authors examine the differential effects of IC components on employee IWB amid coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) through a novel lens of employees' perceptions of career sustainability, enriching the literature at the intersection of IC, knowledge management (KM) and career development. The authors' cross-level analysis links micro-level variables to organizational IC in the new normal.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Since acceptance of this article, the following author(s) have updated their affiliations: I.M. Jawahar is at the Department of Management, Anderson School of Management, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Funding: The study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant number: 72272136.
Citation
Chin, T., Zhang, W. and Jawahar, I.M. (2023), "Intellectual capital and employee innovative behavior in cross-border e-commerce enterprises: the moderating role of career sustainability", Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol. 24 No. 6, pp. 1532-1549. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-10-2022-0193
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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