I-deals And Firm-specific Human Capital Investment:the Moderating Role Of Corporate Reputation

Firm-specific human capital is a strategic asset of an enterprise.How to motivate employees to carry out high-level FSHC investment is a common concern of academics and business managers.In view of the “catch-up” risk and under-investment caused by the special nature of FSHC,such as scarcity and low liquidity,the existing theory believes that it can be based on the relationship-based employee governance mechanism and the economic-based employee governance mechanism.However,as the pace of technological advancement accelerates and the adoption of flexible employment relationships,companies need to explore new management practices to motivate employees to invest in FSHC.This study attempts to explore the incentive effect of idiosyncratic deals on employees' FSHC investment and the role of corporate reputation in the framework of social exchange theory from the perspective of work design.Based on the theoretical analysis,this study puts forward hypothesis and conducts empirical research using survey data.The research finds that:(1)the implementation of i-deals can significantly promote the investment of employees in FSHC;(2)corporate reputation has a significant moderating role in the implementation of i-deals and employees' FSHC investment relationships,that is,the improvement of the corporate reputation will enhance the promotion of the implementation of i-deals to the employees' FSHC investment.This study proves that i-deals as an explanatory indicator of FSHC has certain scientific significance.The research results not only enrich FSHC investment incentive theory,but also have practical application value to the enterprise.