Entrepreneurial leadership, human capital management, and global competitiveness

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships among top management teams' (TMS) entrepreneurial leadership, international human capital management (IHCM), and global competitiveness.Design methodology approach - Given the exploratory nature of this research, the authors adopted a purposive sampling process and targeted companies headquartered in Taiwan but with foreign subsidiaries. In addition to in-depth interview, a questionnaires survey was administered to secure information from either top managers or human resources professionals. Altogether, 114 companies took part in the study.Findings - The results indicated that entrepreneurial leadership of TMS not only had direct positive influences on a firm's IHCM, but also had indirect positive influences on a firm's global competiveness through the meditating effects of IHCM.Originality value - One contribution of this study is the development of appropriate metrics to measure a firm's "IHCM" practices that enhance a firm's global competiveness. A second contribution is the development of metrics of a firm's global competiveness and to explain a firm's global competiveness from a human capital management perspective. Additionally, this study contributed to the literature by empirically investigating the mediating effect of IHCM on the relationship between TMS entrepreneurial leadership and global competiveness relationship.