The internationalization of the Spanish Manufacturing Firm: Effect of the specific and generic human capital

• Main Author: JOSÉ LÓPEZ RODRÍGUEZ
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU) 2006-06-01
• Series: Management Letters/Cuadernos de Gestión
• Subjects: Resource-based view; education; export intensity; tobit models
• Online Access: http://www.ehu.es/cuadernosdegestion/revista/index.php/en/published-issues?y=2006&v=6&n=1&o=1

The efficiency and competitive capacity of firms depend —besides other factors— on the quality of the human capital which they have. Thus, the objective of this work is to analyze the effect of the firm’s human capital in the decision to enter into the international markets like in the intensity of sales made in these markets using logit and tobit regression models. The empirical analysis is carried out on a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms. The quality of firm’s human capital is evaluated in two ways, on the one side we consider the generic human capital of the employees and on the other side we consider the specific human capital of the employees. The results show that the generic and specific firm’s human capital have a positive and significant effect on both the decision to enter in the international markets and the intensity of sales made in these markets.