Purpose-The paper seeks to test empirically a variety of hypotheses related to human capital and organizational performance within software companies in Egypt. Design/methodology/approach-A valid research instrument was utilized to conduct a survey of 38 software companies who are representative of the 107 members of the Software Industry Chamber of Egypt. A correlation analysis and stepwise regression were conducted to ascertain the validity of the hypotheses. Findings-Statistical support was found for six of the nine hypotheses tested. Research limitations/implications-One of the limitations of this study is that human capital metrics were based on CEO self-reported scores. Thus, the ability to generalize is limited to this context. Practical implications-Of all the human capital metrics collected, the number of superstar developers seems to be the most critical variable in predicting export intensity. Superstar developers are those individuals whose productivity equals four times that of the other developers and twice that of the star developers. Originality/value-This paper tests empirically the relationship between human capital and organization performance in the Egyptian software industry context and provides support for the recruitment and development of superstar developers.

The distribution of knowledge around the world varies significantly with developed countries possessing most of the world's current intellectual capital (IC) compared to developing countries. Most IC research has been conducted in a variety of international settings such as the UK, Scandinavia, Australia, Canada, Austria, Malaysia, the USA, and Ireland. However, no empirical research has been conducted at the organizational level in the field of IC in Arab countries. These nations are socially, economically, and culturally different from most countries in the aforementioned list. This study describes the IC in Egyptian software firms. The study's objective is to contribute to the IC theory development by building a measurement system in an unique context. This paper highlights the key IC indicators as reported by Egyptian CEOs. Ultimately, the resultant report provides them with a direction for building a strong knowledge base for future IC development. IntroductionWith the emergence of the knowledge-based economy, we have witnessed many changes in the nature of work and the demands placed on organizations to become the storehouses of innovation, nourishing and sustaining wellsprings of talent. The knowledge-based economy has provided us with new notions of globalization (i.e. borderless economies) and new models for firms (i.e. networked learning organizations). These emergent trends have a great influence on management research and require new approaches for investigation. Over four decades back, Penrose (1959) looked at the firm as a repository of knowledge and experience and argued that knowledge is the critical factor in explaining the growth of firms. More recently, intellectual capital (IC) is considered as the critical antecedent for the sustained performance of a firm

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract