Human and Social Capital Explanations for R&D Outcomes

Abstract

This paper assesses the extent to which human capital (education, work experience, and training) and social capital (level of interconnectedness, relationship, and shared expectations with others) impact on research and development outcomes. Controlling for gender and type of industry, logistic regression analyses indicate that an individual's education level has a positive impact on patents/copyrights obtained, articles published/presented, and product/process improvements. Hierarchical logistic regression analyses show that an individual's level of interconnectedness with others has incremental impact over one's human capital in projects completed, internal technical reports generated, product/process improvements made, and products commercialized. Explanations for the incremental value of social capital are made in terms of Nahapiet and Ghoshal's structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions of social capital.