When collaborative HR practices may not work well: the moderating role of social capital in the Chinese life insurance industry

Abstract

In this study, we examine the main and interaction effects of insurance agent-focused collaborative HR practices and insurance agents' social capital on their sales performance. Data from 984 participants were collected in five subsidiaries of a large Chinese life insurance company. The results show a strong relationship between social capital and objective sales performance. More importantly, we found a negative interaction effect of collaborative HR practices and network size on individual performance and a positive interaction effect of collaborative HR practices and network range on objective sales performance. The study is unique in that it looks at the interaction between HR and social capital, investigates how HR practices affect individual performance and not firm performance as has been more commonly done, and focuses on one industry to be able to capture the unique aspects of HR practices in that industry. Theoretical contributions, managerial implications, and limitations are also discussed.

Keywords:

• collaborative HR practices
• sales agents
• sales performance
• social capital

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from a grant from National Science Foundation of China (grant number is 70572018). The authors also thank the Editor, Michael Poole, and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions during the review process. Finally, we thank Qiang Cao, Chen Yu, and Xiaopeng Zhang for providing research assistance.

Notes

**In memory: Carl Fey and Yichi Zhang would like to dedicate the article in memory of first author YunYun Chen. After the article was accepted, YunYun Chen, only 27 years old, died tragically on 13 June 2009 after being struck by lightning while walking on the Great Wall near Beijing, China with her husband whom she had recently married (they both died instantly). YunYun Chen, who grew up on a small farm in a small town in China, showed that with persistence and hard work one can achieve whatever one wants to. She was a doctoral student at Peking University and was a guest doctoral student at Stockholm School of Economics during the academic year 2008–2009. She was extremely hard working and fun to be with and her true love for management research infected all who she came into contact with. She will be deeply missed. In her memory, we ask that everyone who reads this continues to work hard on uncovering the mysteries of management research as YunYun would have wanted and realizes how lucky we are to have the chance to continue to engage in this endeavor. Stockholm School of Economics is aiming to raise funds to set up a scholarship in YunYun's memory to help another/other Chinese PhD students to be a guest PhD student at Stockholm School of Economics and carry on YunYun's love of research. For more information, contact [email protected]