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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to analyze how organizational factors such as cultural values, leadership and human resource (HR) practices influence knowledge exploration and exploitation practices and innovation via an empirical study.Design/methodology/approach -From the knowledge-based view of the firm, six hypotheses were established and statistically tested in a sample of 111 Spanish companies belonging to innovative industries. Survey methodology was used with the aim of gathering data regarding knowledge management (KM) practices and certain, related organizational aspects in firms.Findings -This paper provides evidence of a moderating effect of knowledge-centered culture, knowledge-oriented leadership and knowledge-centered HR practices in the relationship between knowledge exploration and exploitation practices and innovation outcomes of companies. In line with previous literature, it is suggested that although KM practices are important on their own for innovation purposes, when certain enablers -organizational factors to overcome human barriers to KM -are properly established, the innovation capacity of the firm can be more successfully exploited.Research limitations/implications -The research is limited to high rate innovation industries. Future studies will include other industries and a more diverse sample of firms.Practical implications -The results of this study suggest that managers should place attention on knowledge exploration and exploitation practices along with several organizational enablers in order to achieve high levels of innovation results for the company.Originality/value -This paper provides new empirical evidence on the relationships between KM, organizational elements such as culture, leadership, HR practices, and innovation in a large sample of firms. To date, the empirical research of these relations has been mainly limited to descriptive case studies and there is thus a lack of empirical evidence with large samples of firms.

This paper analyzes the effect of systems of human resource management (HRM) practices on a company's innovation capabilities. To date, few studies have analyzed the way a firm may be more innovative by using specific sets of high-performance HRM practices from an intellectual capital-based view of the firm. From an extensive literature review, a model was established and tested through structural equation modelling, using the statistical technique of partial least squares. The study was applied to a sample of technological firms in Spain and the results show that high-profile personal HRM practices positively influence human capital while collaborative HRM practices influence social capital, which, in turn, affect innovation capabilities by means of, respectively, total and partial mediating effects. Managerial and HRM implications of these results are drawn by the authors, highlighting the idea of paying increased attention to managing firms with a focus on strategic intangible assets in order to gain competitive advantages based on innovation.

In this paper we analyze the relationships between certain knowledge management (KM) practices, organizational culture, and the technological results of companies. In the last few years, KM literature has highlighted the important role of cultural values on the way KM processes are developed and applied in organizations. From this viewpoint, and focusing on a set of knowledge storage and transfer practices, we try to empirically analyze the existence of a multiplier effect of the knowledge-centered organizational culture on the relationship between these kinds of knowledge practices and the technological performance of firms. The results of the empirical study show the existence of a significant moderating effect, although the consequences on the innovative performance in terms of product or process technologies are found to be different, depending on the practice (storage or transfer) which is considered.

The main purpose of this paper is to empirically analyse relationships between human resource (HR) and knowledge management (KM) practices and their effect on the firm's innovation performance. From the knowledge-based view of the firm, hypotheses based on the specific interactions between an integrated set of KM and knowledge-oriented HR practices were established and statistically tested in a sample of 111 Spanish companies from technological industries. Survey methodology was used with the aim to gather data about KM practices and other related organizational aspects. Overall, this paper provides empirical evidence of a moderating effect of a set of knowledge-oriented HR practices in the relationship between KM exploitation practices and innovation performance. In line with previous research, we suggest that although KM practices are important in themselves for innovation purposes, when specific organizational conditions are properly established by managers the innovation capacity of the firm will significantly be improved and more successfully utilized.