Human Capital Investment, Ambidextrous Innovation, and Resilience of SRDI Enterprises

In the era of VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity), cultivating and enhancing the resilience of SRDI (specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative) enterprises is critical. Based on existing research, this paper defines enterprise resilience at the beginning and constructs an enterprise resilience evaluation index system that includes three segmented capabilities: recognition and resistance, adaptation and adjustment, and recovery and rebound. Taking 1422 SRDI enterprises in China between 2016 and 2023 as samples, this study conducts an empirical study on the relationship between human capital investment, ambidextrous innovation and SRDI enterprises’ resilience by comprehensively employing various econometric methods such as fixed-effects models, mediating effect tests, and threshold regression. The empirical findings demonstrate that human capital investment positively affects the resilience of SRDI enterprises, with breakthrough and progressive innovation serving as mediating factors. Further research reveals that as scale expands, human capital investment exerts an increasingly strong positive influence on enterprise resilience; concurrently, as resilience improves, the impact of human capital investment shifts from negative to positive, with its positive effect growing progressively stronger. Moreover, increased investment in human capital has a significant positive impact on the recognition and resistance capability, as well as the adaptation and adjustment capability, of SRDI enterprises, but has no significant effect on their recovery and rebound capability. Meanwhile, a heterogeneity analysis by certification type of SRDI enterprises reveals that human capital investment has no significant impact on overall enterprise resilience or on the segmented capabilities of the SRDI “Little Giants” Enterprises. However, for SRDI SMEs, it positively influences their overall enterprise resilience, recognition and resistance capability, and adaptation and adjustment capability. Additionally, for innovative SMEs, it positively impacts their overall enterprise resilience and their recognition and resistance capability. Based on the above, this paper recommends that SRDI enterprises should strengthen their strategic focus, continuously enhance investments in human capital and ambidextrous innovation, implement differentiated human capital investment strategies, and prioritize the recruitment and development of cutting-edge talents.