Human resource management and co-ordination for innovation activities – cases from India's automotive industry

The study undertakes the following three analytical issues in theprocess of technological capability building in firms in anindustrialising country. First, it identifies the major innovativeactivity or learning events in the longitudinal history of a form ina technologically intensive industry. Second, it identifies thehuman resource requirement, which is required for achievingthose learning events or innovations. Third, it maps out theinternal and external human resource development strategiesemployed by the firms. The three issues are analysed in thecontext of three leading domestic firms in India’s automotiveindustry. The ensuing analysis shows some remarkable parallels inthe internal and external strategies adopted by the three firms. The most dominant internal strategy is in-house training ofscientists and engineers to do in-house R&D and the mostdominant external strategy is the acquisition of technologicallyintensive foreign firms which possess a key technology which theoriginal firm lacks and then effecting knowledge flows from theacquired foreign firm to the original domestic firm.