Green human resource management, Green intellectual capital and Green innovation: A case of SMEs in Ho Chi Minh city

Abstract

Green human resource management is critical to enhancing the ability of the companies’ green innovation, but this link is rarely explored in the literature. There are inadequate studies investigating the green innovation when firms implement organizational policies, which may play a critical role in this process. Adapted from Natural-Resource-Based View (NRBV) theory, this study develops the model of the relationship between green human resource management (GHM) and green innovation (GI) in manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the mediation role of green intellectual capital (GIC), which includes 3 dimensions: green human capital (GHC), green structural capital (GSC) and green relational capital (GRC). The author tested the research hypotheses using a structural equation modeling (SEM) with survey data from 393 top manager of manufacturing SMEs in Ho Chi Minh city. Structured questionnaires were designed to collect data and snowball sampling technique was used. The empirical findings demonstrate that GHM positively impacts on GHC, GSC, GRC and GI. At the same time, GI is driven by the three dimensions of GIC. The research results suggest that SMEs’ top managers should have appropriate strategies to promote GI through GHM and GIC.