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The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyse the mediator effect of innovative work behaviour (IWB) between the firm’s human resource management system and product innovation.

Data are collected from 225 Spanish manufacture companies. Hypotheses are tested using structured equation modelling. The structural model is estimated through partial least squares modelling.

The results provide strong evidence about the effect of the system of human resource management practices on both, employee’s IWB and product innovation. Furthermore, findings support the idea that employee’s IWB mediates the relationship between human resource management and product innovation.

Although the study counts with the limitations of cross-sectional studies, its findings suggest that employees’ IWB fosters product innovation and that the adoption of a high-performance work system is positively associated to such behaviour.

This paper shows that companies seeking to foster product innovation should pay attention to their employees’ behaviour. In particular, they should promote that employees engage in innovative behaviours, and that adopting high-performance human resource management practices can help in this line.

Although a number of studies suggest that IWB is a key determinant of innovation and a mediator in the link between human resource management and innovation, there is no empirical research examining these relationships. This paper covers this gap detected in the literature and provides evidence supporting them.

This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the relationship between innovation and export performance by examining the effect of different types of innovation on export performance and testing the assumption underlying most studies in the field that competitive advantage mediates this relationship.

From the literature review, this paper proposes a research model that is estimated using a sample of 200 Spanish exporting manufacturing companies. Data for this study were collected with an ad hoc questionnaire, and the partial least squares structural equation modeling technique was chosen to analyze the data.

The results show that there is a positive relationship between product and business process innovation and export performance and that competitive advantage mediates this relationship, but only when it is based on costs, not on differentiation.

This paper provides evidence that product and business process innovation are positively related to export performance and that competitive advantage mediates these relationships, but only when the advantage is low cost. Unexpectedly, this paper finds that differentiation is neither related to export performance nor explains the relationship between innovation and export performance.

The objective of this study is to analyze the process of reverse knowledge transfer (RKT) occurring in multinational companies (MNCs), examining whether headquarters' absorptive capacity and the human resource management (HRM) practices developed by the parent unit influence success.

The data were collected through a questionnaire completed by the human resource manager of multinational company (MNC) headquarters. The analysis has been carried out on a sample of 115 Spanish MNCs by using structural equation models (SEM).

The results indicate that a parent firm's absorptive capacity positively influences RKT and that, in turn, this absorptive capacity is greater if headquarters implement certain practices of employee staffing, training, participation and performance appraisal.

This study extends existing research on RKT by examining the absorptive capacity of headquarters. Its main contribution is to provide evidence that MNCs can improve their RKT through HRM practices developed by the parent unit. This is original because most studies on RKT focus on HRM practices used by subsidiaries.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to study the relationship between reverse knowledge transfer (RKT) and headquarters’ innovation, examining potential moderators of such relationship, and to analyze the role of headquarters’ absorptive capacity (AC) and the coordination mechanisms they adopt as antecedents of RKT.

Quantitative data were collected from 104 Spanish multinational companies. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses.

Findings provide the evidence of a positive relationship between RKT and headquarters’ innovation. This relationship is higher when the knowledge transferred from subsidiaries to parent units is of a more tacit nature, and also when the organizational distance between them is larger. The results also show that the parent unit’s AC and the use of mechanisms for coordinating company units can facilitate RKT.

MNCs that wish to be more innovative should be aware that it is worth the effort of fostering RKT, especially when knowledge is more tacit and comes from subsidiaries with different organizational practices and culture because these two variables increase the positive relationship that it was found between effective RKT and the development of innovation in the headquarters. Additionally, results show that in order to facilitate RKT, the improvement of headquarters’ AC and the use of mechanisms of coordination between them and its subsidiaries can be useful.

Up to the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study that examines the link between RKT and headquarters innovation, and one of the few that focuses on headquarters characteristics as determinants of RKT. Thus, the findings contribute to the literature that highlights the benefits of RKT for MNC’s competitiveness, and that seeks to know how to promote RKT.

Recent literature has highlighted the importance of human resource management, knowledge management, and technical innovation as key elements for achieving competitive advantage. Furthermore, research has shown a positive relationship between these three variables. However, empirical research on this issue is still scarce. This paper analyzes those linkages using structural equation modeling with data collected from 373 Spanish firms. The findings show that there is a relationship among the variables, although it is more complex than described in previous studies.

This paper aims to assess the importance of different knowledge management practices to promote organizational innovation in multinational companies. The links among internationalization, reverse knowledge transfer and social capital and organizational innovation are analyzed.

Structural equation modeling was used to check the research hypotheses with a sample of 104 multinational companies.

The results show that internalization has no direct effect on organizational innovation but a indirect effect trhrough the transfer of knowledge from external subsidiaries to the headquarter. Furthermore, this knowledge and other that comes from internal and external social capital is essential for the development of innovations.

Self-reporting by the CEOs may be the most significant limitation, as a single key informant provided the data; multiple informants would enhance the validity of the research findings. A second limitation is the cross-sectional design of the research that does not allow observation of the short- and long-term impact of the relationships among the variables.

Organizational innovation is not an easy task. However, those multinational companies which foster knowledge management practices that generate new knowledge from external subsidiaries, internal or external social relationships, will facilitate the generation of innovations. In consequence, these companies should foster the generation of knowledge from different sources.

The focus of the study in this paper is on multinational companies and the possibility to acquire knowledge from different sources (inside organization, external local environment and international context). Specially, focus on the transfer of knowledge from subsidiaries to headquarters (reverse knowledge transfer), as it is insufficiently investigated by current literature.

This paper aims to study the effect of HRM practices on the knowledge management process, focusing on HRM practices both in isolation and forming a knowledge‐oriented HR system.

After reviewing the relevant literature, the paper empirically analyzes the relationship between knowledge‐oriented HR practices and the processes of knowledge acquisition, distribution, interpretation and storing, using a sample of 701 firms.

Findings provide evidence of a positive relationship between the adoption of a knowledge‐oriented HR system and each of the knowledge management processes, but also show that the HRM practices comprising that system have different effects on the knowledge management processes.

The main limitations of this paper are the cross‐sectional design of the empirical research and the fact that data were collected from one source only.

Findings can guide managers hoping to enhance the development of organizational knowledge. They show that HRM practices may foster all the knowledge management process when they are adopted jointly, as a system of consistent knowledge‐oriented HRM practices. The paper also suggests some particular HRM practices that systems should include.

Although literature suggests that HRM can play a key role in knowledge management, little empirical research has explicitly examined the relationship between HRM and each of the knowledge management processes – that is the main purpose of this paper. In addition, the paper defines which practices should be included in a knowledge‐oriented HR system.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of organizational learning on technical innovation and the role of organizational culture as a determinant of the organizational learning processes.

After reviewing the literature on organizational learning and its relationship with both, technical innovation and organizational culture, this paper analyzes those relationships using a sample of 451 firms.

Findings reveal that organizational learning is positively associated with technical innovation and that organizational culture can foster both organizational learning and technical innovation but can also act as a barrier. Additionally, findings show that in order to enhance innovation neither a flexibility focus nor an external focus are enough. Both of them are necessary to characterize organizational culture.

The main limitations of this paper are the cross‐sectional design of the empirical research and the fact that data were collected from one source only.

Findings can guide managers' efforts in the development of an organizational culture which fosters both organizational learning and innovation since they show that adhocracy culture fosters both of them and that a hierarchy culture may act as a barrier for them.

The paper focuses on the little‐researched relations between organizational culture, organizational learning and innovation. Moreover, it focuses on the Spanish context, where there is a lack of studies on this issue. Finally, the paper provides empirical evidence that these relations exist. In particular, adhocracy enhances both learning and innovation the most, while hierarchy inhibits them most.

This study aims to analyse the relationship between innovation and human resource management (HRM) from an empirical perspective, attempting to establish whether innovation determines the firm's HRM or conversely HRM influences the innovation level of the company

Literature is reviewed from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. On the basis of this review, some research hypotheses are formulated. Finally, these hypotheses are empirically tested on a sample of Spanish firms.

The results provide evidence for both hypotheses and offer more support for Schuler and Jackson's model than for Miles and Snow's model. In accordance with the previous literature, that in order to affect employee behaviour – and consequently promote company objectives – firms must develop a bundle of internally consistent HRM practices. However, what is still unresolved is which HRM practices should be included in that system.

Fills a gap in the literature, particularly in empirical research, with a focus on Spanish firms.

This paper aims to analyze the repatriation adjustment process of international employees in the Spanish context. The paper also aims to test the applicability of Black et al.'s repatriation adjustment model for Spanish repatriates.

The paper reports on empirical quantitative research, based on data from 124 Spanish repatriates. Multiple regression analysis and factor analysis are used to test the hypotheses of the study.

The findings provide evidence for some of the relations proposed in the model but they do not support the model as a whole. The paper questions the existence of the different dimensions of expectations/adjustment and the importance of some of the factors included in the model.

The sample is not very large; some bias could appear as only repatriates who continue working in their companies were questioned. Future research should conduct longitudinal studies.

The study provides evidence of the relevance of facilitating repatriates' adjustment, as it affects their performance. The study also shows that some variables can facilitate the process. In particular, having a mentor and frequent communication with home during the expatriation has been found to help the repatriates to create accurate expectations, which, in turn, affect their general adjustment. Social capacity and the fact that the repatriates had not adjusted completely overseas also facilitate readjustment. Finally, work autonomy on return and social status have been found to positively affect work adjustment.

The paper contributes to the literature by examining the repatriation model of Black et al. that has not been thoroughly analyzed before wither as a whole regarding its applicability to non‐Anglo‐Saxon countries.