Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on Intellectual Capital

Helena Santos-Rodrigues et al.
<strong>the</strong> ability to innovate products and processes are <strong>the</strong> incentives for innovation (0.320 with sig. 0.001)
and <strong>the</strong> Innovative Attitude (0.216 with sig. 0.046).
We will have a variation in <strong>the</strong> capacity Innovative Product and Process <strong>of</strong> 0.399 with each variation
<strong>of</strong> a unit in Clients <strong>of</strong> 0.288 with each variation <strong>of</strong> a unit in collaborative networks <strong>of</strong> 0.320 with each
variation <strong>of</strong> a unit Incentives Innovation and 0.216 for each variation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Innovative Attitude holding
<strong>the</strong> remaining independent variables constant or controlled effects.
Before proceeding with our analysis presented below in graphic form <strong>the</strong> conclusions reached in this
section.
Figure 2: Model
As expected in our first hypo<strong>the</strong>sis (H.1.) Human capital is associated with <strong>the</strong> innovativeness <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
company; in particular we conclude that human capital has an important role in <strong>the</strong> product-process
innovativeness. In line with <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>ory that considers <strong>the</strong> human capital as <strong>the</strong> most important
component <strong>of</strong> Intellectual Capital, in <strong>the</strong> perspective <strong>of</strong> intellectual capital, inputs to <strong>the</strong> process <strong>of</strong>
knowledge creation are provided by <strong>the</strong> Human Capital. But we concluded oppositely on <strong>the</strong>
management innovativeness, as <strong>the</strong> Human Capital don’t appear (at least directly) related with this
type <strong>of</strong> innovativeness. These results (never<strong>the</strong>less) are consistent with some academics, such as
Stewart (1998b) for whom Human Capital has no significant direct impact on business performance
because it needs <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r intellectual components, as <strong>the</strong> structural and relational capital to be
processed. Also, Bontis (1998) and Cabrita (2008) found no significant direct relationship between
Human Capital and business performance.
We also validated our second hypo<strong>the</strong>sis H.2. We observed that <strong>the</strong> Structural Capital is directly
related to <strong>the</strong> management innovativeness, <strong>the</strong>se results are validate by <strong>the</strong>oretical arguments
(Davenport, et al., 2003) that consider that is <strong>the</strong> company that turns knowledge into performance.
Businesses should support <strong>the</strong> performance <strong>of</strong> employees through <strong>the</strong>ir infrastructure, information
systems, routines, culture and trust, facilitating <strong>the</strong> dissemination <strong>of</strong> knowledge. Companies must
develop a culture that encourages and promotes <strong>the</strong> retention <strong>of</strong> Human Capital (Cabrita & Bontis,
2008). The relationship between structural capital and <strong>the</strong> innovativeness was also contrasted by
Subramanian and Youndt (2005) (Organizational Capital in <strong>the</strong>ir case) and <strong>the</strong>y verify <strong>the</strong> existence <strong>of</strong>
a significant relationship with incremental innovation capacity (not all types <strong>of</strong> innovative capacity.)
We also validate our hypo<strong>the</strong>sis H.3., noting that <strong>the</strong> Relational Capital is directly related with <strong>the</strong>
product-process innovativeness. The dimensions Collaboration Networks and Clients are directly
related to <strong>the</strong> innovative capacity. The results obtained may reveal <strong>the</strong> specificities <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> automotive
sector, which through its organization and management enhance collaboration between vehicle
manufacturers, allies and suppliers to develop components, modules and solutions.
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