Human capital, social capital, and innovation: a multi-country study

TLDR

The study examines how human and social capital influence national innovation. The authors aim to test a global model linking human and social capital to innovation across 59 countries. They use World Development Report data on human development and World Values Survey measures of trust, associational activity, and civic norms to test this model. The results confirm a strong positive link between human capital and innovation, show that trust and associational activity also boost innovation, but reveal a negative association between civic norms and one innovation metric.

Abstract

The authors examine the effects of two forms of capital, i.e. human capital and social capital, on innovation at the country level. We use secondary data from the World Development Report on a country's overall human development to test for a relationship between human capital and innovation. We also use previous conceptualizations of social capital as comprising trust, associational activity, and norms of civic behaviour to test for relationships between these indicators of social capital and innovation using data from the World Values Survey. Unlike most previous studies that examined human and social capital within a given country, we develop and empirically test a theoretically grounded model that relates human and social capital to innovation at the societal level across 59 different countries, thus providing a more global view of the role of these two forms of capital in generating value. We find strong support for the positive relationship between human capital and innovation and partial support for the positive effect of trust and associational activity on innovation. However, contrary to our prediction, we find a negative relationship between norms of civic behaviour and one of our innovation measures.