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Moderating effect of intellectual capital on innovativeness in Latin American subsistence small businesses
Small businesses created as a way of subsisting are very important in Latin America in alleviating
extreme poverty. These businesses possibly need to innovate to compete. Innovativeness
is strongly linked with intellectual capital, but the limitations of subsistence small businesses
weaken this link. In particular, human capital possibly affects innovativeness, but the effect
can be mediated or moderated by other components of intellectual capital. This paper uses
partial least squares to study the impact of the different dimensions of intellectual capital on
innovativeness as a dynamic capability in small businesses in the timber industry in an area of
Latin America, and, in particular, the mediation effect among them. The results show that human
capital generates relational capital. The relational capital needs structural capital to improve the
innovativeness of subsistence small businesses.