Human Resource Management and Innovation: What Lessons From Italian Social Enterprises?

The purpose of this work is to investigate the impact of human resource management practices (HRMPs) on service innovation in the non-profit sector. Indeed, non-profit organizations rely on the dedicated work of their employees to achieve their social mission, which is strictly connected with their capacity in producing innovations, both inwards and outwards. Our research is focused on social cooperatives (SCs), a particular kind of social enterprise (SEs), which are very important in the Italian context from the historical point of view as well as for the role they play at present. SCs were born in the 1980s as a specific form of cooperative working in health and social welfare services and in the field of education, and offering opportunities of social and professional integration of disadvantaged workers. These enterprises are undergoing radical changes as result of the rationalization and disinvestments made by the welfare state in Italy (as in many other European countries), while there has been a significant growth in demand for the services they offer. The advancing competition among non-profit organizations (especially SEs and SCs), public service providers and for-profit organizations (Salamon and Dewees, 2002), is driving SCs to produce innovative services, while improving their efficiency and enhancing their standards of quality. The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationships between investments in HRMPs and organizational performance, with particular attention being paid to innovations in provisions of services, based on the evidence that human capital may positively impact innovation. More precisely, the hypothesis that we stated is that investments in HRMPs-as a whole and as particular practices-are positively connected with innovation in services offered by SCs. The hypothesis will be tested on data collected through an online questionnaire administered to representatives of a population of SCs in north-central Italy (N=58). This initial dataset was built on the basis of the Institutional File of Social Cooperatives, held by all Provinces and Regions (current response rate=4%). From the methodological point of view, a regression analysis will be deployed in order to test the relationship between HRMPs and innovation in provision of services. Our preliminary results show that investments in HRMPs do not have any impact on the two variables used to measure innovation: exploitation of opportunities and percentage of turnover coming from the provisions of new services. Also, some of the 11 high-performance HRMPs do explain, to a significant extent, the two dependent variables. These unexpected results have encouraged us to deepen the issue for its theoretical and managerial implications. From the first perspective, the paper applies the few pieces of literature on HRMPs and innovation, and asks for further analysis to understand what the real sources of innovation in SCs are. At the same time, this study can offer useful stimuli for managers and practitioners to focus their attention on what innovation is and where it can be produced.