Cristiano Antonelli, University of Torino, Italy
Cécile Cézanne, Université Côte d’Azur, France
Virgile Chassagnon, Grenoble Alpes University, France
Thomas Grebel, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Germany
Jackie Krafft, CNRS, France
Francesco Quatraro, University of Torino, Italy
Laurence Saglietto, Université Côte d’Azur, France

Editors

Call for Chapters

Introduction

Since the mid-1990s, firms’ productive activity is mainly based on human capital resources. It is widely recognised that the capacity of most modern firms to generate innovation, value and performance depends on the knowledge and skills of their founders, managers and employees and on the ability of organisations to combine them efficiently. They are the bedrock of firms’ competitive advantage. In this context, Human Capital-Intensive Firms (HCIF) are an interesting object of study as they capture the transformation and complexity of productive organisations in today’s globalised economies, relying more and more on human assets and resources. In this sense, it is crucial to grasp the scope and breadth of HCIF and its impact in relation to value creation.
Although it is difficult to establish a precise definition of human capital-intensive firms (HCIF), the investigation of the past and recent literature on the subject allows to characterize them as enterprises whose productive activity is largely dependent on the specialised and complementary human assets embodied by their critical partners, who may be firm employees or external partners.

In this context, HCIF include a wide variety of organisations, ranging from law firms whose prosperity depends essentially on the expertise of the lawyers they employ, advertising agencies whose reputation is based on the talent of the artists and designers in their creative departments, IT companies whose activity is essentially built around skilled computer specialists and programmers, and pharmaceutical laboratories whose success and performance depends largely on their researchers and especially ‘star scientists’. In other words, HCIF operate in entirely different branches from knowledge-intensive business services (commonly known as KIBS) to high-tech manufacturing industries, readily identifiable in the diverse classifications of economic activities.

In the end, HCIF encompass the large majority of productive organizations whose activity requires not only traditional production factors such as fixed capital and labor but also and especially the intangible assets of skills, structures and organisational procedures, and a corporate culture along with specific human assets. Consequently, although HCIF might appear to be an extreme case of a productive organisation, they in reality are widespread in business and are essential sources of technological and organizational innovation. Thus, HCIF are an ideal focus for the study of modern firms, both at an analytical and empirical level.
Many current issues and future challenges must be explored: how can the HCIF's boundaries and governance can be analysed? How do HCIF manage their network of critical and complementary intangibles assets on which they are built? To what extent skills assessmennt and intellectual management is decisive for HCIF? What about funding innovation for these types of firms? Etc.

Objective

The objective of this book is to provide an advanced analysis of a widespread and valuable organizations of the modern capitalism which is yet difficult to precisely define and underexplored in the theoretical and empirical literature. In this perspective, a transdisciplinary approach (economics of the firm, corporate finance, accounting, human resource management, sociology, psychology, organization theory…) is required to examine HCIF.

This book offers a broad overview of the major works on the field and advances innovative research directions, building on different methods of research (theoretical models, case studies, empirical evidence and testimonials, historical analysis…).

Studying HCIF will impact the economics and management of the firm because the book will:
- highlight an under-studied concept;
- show the role of HCIF in different fields of research;
- explore the evolution of HCIF in different sectors, their internal and external organizations, their performance, and their key strenghts that could be easily transferred;
- propose a pluridisplinary approach on a transversal topic.

Target Audience

The target audience for this book is very large. It includes academic researchers, teachers, advanced students and PhD students in various disciplines like economics, business and management, organization, sociology… It could be an essential support for fellowship programs in operational research, organizational research and/or historical theses. This book is also intended for managers, consultants, practitioners who are experts in economics, management or in other social sciences to build human resource decision.

Recommended Topics

Recommended topics include but are not limited to:
- Surveys on HCIF as key organisations within modern capitalism (historical, economic, public policy, managerial, sociological… perspectives;
- Comparative analysis between HCIF and with other types of firms;
- Domains, concepts and experiences in HCIF;
- Sectorial analysis of HCIF;
- Governance and corporate social responsibility on HCIF;
- Relationships between HCIF and partners (suppliers, experts…..);
- The roles of HICF in sectoral innovation systems;
- The impact of HICF on innovation performance in the public and the private sectors;
- HICF and economic growth and development;
- HICF and knowledge spillovers within industrial clusters;
- New research perspectives/trends on HICF;
- KIBS and High-tech manufacturing enterprises and regional innovation performance;
- HICF applied to networks analysis…

Both theoretical and applied approaches but also mono and multi-disciplinary analyses related to these topics are welcomed. Although, the preferred structure of the chapters implies that there will be more empirical research, case studies and evidence from business practice. Only original scientific results will be accepted.

Submission Procedure

Authors are invited to submit a 2-3 pages chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of their proposed chapter by October 10, 2017.
Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by December 15, 2017 about the status of their proposals and will receive chapter guidelines.
Full chapters are expected to be submitted by March 15, 2018. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind basis. Contributors may also be requested to be engaged as reviewers for this project.

Language:
Submissions will be made in English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Authors who feel their English language paper submission may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English would use editing/proofreading services on their own.

Publisher

This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the "Information Science Reference" (formerly Idea Group Reference), "Medical Information Science Reference," "Business Science Reference," and "Engineering Science Reference" imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2019.

Note: There are no submission or acceptance fees for manuscripts submitted to this publication. All manuscripts are accepted based on a double-blind peer review editorial process.
All proposals should be submitted through the E-Editorial Discovery online submission manager.

Important Dates

October 10, 2017: Proposal Submission Deadline
December 15, 2017: Notification of Acceptance
March 15, 2018: Full Chapter Submission
May 15, 2018: Review Results Returned
June 15, 2018: Revised Chapter Submission
July 1st, 2018: Final Acceptance Notification
July 8, 2018: Submission of Final Chapters