Product Innovation Building, the Relevance of Human Capital: A Case Study

• Main Authors: Santos-Rodrigues, Helena, Lousinha, Luis, Cranfield, Desireé
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Case studies; Competitive advantage; Design; Designers; Economic growth; Education; Human capital; Innovations; Intellectual capital; Knowledge; Literature reviews; Market positioning; Product design; Product development; Product lines; R&D; Research & development; Research methodology; Studies
• ISSN: 2049-0933; 2049-0941

In a rapidly changing business world there is a greater demand for managers and researchers to better manage their intangible resources such as Human Capital. Increasingly important is the management of an organisations brand (image, brand philosophy, etc...), more specifically, its Own Brand, which has gained significance by obtaining an increasing role in various markets. This phenomenon also has a direct impact on an organisation's competitiveness. The focus of this paper is placed on the relevance of Human Capital (as a dimension of Intellectual Capital) to 'Own Brand' Product Innovation development. The research methodology for this investigation incorporated a case study, using both formal and informal interviewing techniques, conducted on a firm situated in the Viana do Castelo district, Northern Portugal. Human Capital and Innovation was the focus of this research study, with Product Innovation being the focal emphasis. Data collection took place during September 2010, with reference made to the previous three years of activity and performance of companies. This research suggests that the different degrees of instability in the markets faced by companies has to do with the company's commitment to training and their ability to offer workshops to their employees on new challenges experienced, as well as their exposure to a more enterprising outlook. It also depends on the function for which the employee is employed and the attitude of the employee (positive, which achieved the maximum value in the questionnaire) to life and work. Formal education, together with the extra professional training, and attitude, is given more consideration and then easily recognised as added value. We verify that there is a very good understanding and appreciation of the kind of effort and sacrifice necessary by highly educated individuals. We found a higher value placed on the extra professional training (higher than that found for the formal education especially if it was based on the individuals own initiative). In present study we found that employee motivation and organization initiatives were important to, innovative initiatives, and also to ease of delivery and exchange of ideas and knowledge. Focusing on the designer professional, we established that the formal academic training of designers and their multidisciplinary training were drivers of innovativeness. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]