Query: Data mining to improve personnel selection and enhance human capital: A case study in high-technology industry

Candidate papers:

abstract: The quality of human capital is crucial for high tech companies to maintain competitive advantages in knowledge economy era. However, high technology companies suffering from high turnover rates often find it hard to recruit the right talents. In addition to conventional human resource management approaches, there is an urgent need to develop effective personnel selection mechanism to find the talents who are the most suitable to their own organizations. This study aims to fill the gap by developing a data mining framework based on decision tree and association rules to generate useful rules for personnel selection. The results can provide decision rules relating personnel information with work performance and retention. An empirical study was conducted in a semiconductor company to support their hiring decision for indirect labors including engineers and managers with different job functions. The results demonstrated the practical viability of this approach. Moreover, based on discussions among domain experts and data miner, specific recruitment and human resource management strategies were created from the results.
author_names: Chen-Fu Chien

Li-Fei Chen
title: Data mining to improve personnel selection and enhance human capital: A case study in high technology industry
venue: Expert Syst. Appl.
year: 2008

abstract: Data Preparation for Data Mining addresses an issue unfortunately ignored by most authorities on data mining: data preparation. Thanks largely to its perceived difficulty, data preparation has traditionally taken a backseat to the more alluring question of how best to extract meaningful knowledge. But without adequate preparation of your data, the return on the resources invested in mining is certain to be disappointing.Dorian Pyle corrects this imbalance. A twenty five year veteran of what has become the data mining industry, Pyle shares his own successful data preparation methodology, offering both a conceptual overview for managers and complete technical details for IT professionals. Apply his techniques and watch your mining efforts pay off in the form of improved performance, reduced distortion, and more valuable results.On the enclosed CD ROM, you'll find a suite of programs as C source code and compiled into a command line driven toolkit. This code illustrates how the author's techniques can be applied to arrive at an automated preparation solution that works for you. Also included are demonstration versions of three commercial products that help with data preparation, along with sample data with which you can practice and experiment. Offers in depth coverage of an essential but largely ignored subject. Goes far beyond theory, leading you step by step through the author's own data preparation techniques. Provides practical illustrations of the author's methodology using realistic sample data sets. Includes algorithms you can apply directly to your own project, along with instructions for understanding when automation is possible and when greater intervention is required. Explains how to identify and correct data problems that may be present in your application. Prepares miners, helping them head into preparation with a better understanding of data sets and their limitations.
author_names: Dorian Pyle
title: Data Preparation for Data Mining
year: 1999

abstract: In this paper, the concept of social capital is introduced and illustrated, its forms are described, the social structural conditions under which it arises are examined, and it is used in an analysis of dropouts from high school. Use of the concept of social capital is part of a general theoretical strategy discussed in the paper: taking rational action as a starting point but rejecting the extreme individualistic premises that often accompany it. The conception of social capital as a resource for action is one way of introducing social structure into the rational action paradigm. Three forms of social capital are examined: obligations and expectations, information channels, and social norms. The role of closure in the social structure in facilitating the first and third of these forms of social capital is described. An analysis of the effect of the lack of social capital available to high school sophomores on dropping out of school before graduation is carried out. The effect of social capital within the family and in the community outside the family is examined.
author_names: James S Coleman
title: Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital
venue: American Journal of Sociology
year: 1988

abstract: We develop a two country, two sector model of trade where the only difference between the two countries is their distribution of human capital endowments. We show that even if the two countries have identical aggregate human capital endowments the pattern of trade depends on the properties of the two human capital distributions. We also show that the two distributions of endowments also completely determine the effects of trade on income inequality. Then, we prove that there are long term gains from trade if the marginal utility of income is constant or as long as losers from trade are compensated by winners. Finally, we look at a simple majority voting model. It turns out depending on the distribution of human capital, autarky and free trade with and without compensation may be the outcome of majority voting. JEL Code: F1.
author_names: Spiros P Bougheas

Raymond Riezman
title: Human Capital
venue: Encyclopedia of Social Network Analysis and Mining. 2nd Ed.
year: 2018

abstract: Data mining is a process of extracting knowledge from large databases. Knowledge is appreciated as ultimate power now a days and considered as very important factor for the success of any organization because it has impacted the role of people working in that organization. In last decade, the higher education sector in India has grown radically. Thus HR management has implemented various improvements and it is hard for organizations to retain a motivated and competent workforce. Clever investment in human resource and its effective management has become very necessary today. HRM in higher education sector is further complicated by qualitative and multidimensional definition of "performance" of an academician (employee) in this sector. This paper aims to propose a model for predicting employee performance in higher education institutes with the help of classification and prediction techniques of data mining. The objective of model is to facilitate decisions in a challenging and emerging field of HRM in higher education sector.
author_names: Mugdha Sharma

Ankit Goyal
title: An application of data mining to improve personnel performance evaluation in higher education sector in India
venue: 2015 International Conference on Advances in Computer Engineering and Applications
year: 2015

abstract: In this paper, we analyze empirically the relation between the growth of new technology based firms and the human capital of founders, with the aim of teasing out the "wealth" and "capability" effects of human capital. For this purpose, we take advantage of a new data set relating to a sample composed of 506 Italian young firms that operate in high tech industries in both manufacturing and services. In accordance with competence based theories, the econometric estimates show that the nature of the education and of the prior work experience of founders exerts a key influence on growth. In fact, founders' years of university education in economic and managerial fields and to a lesser extent in scientific and technical fields positively affect growth while education in other fields does not. Similarly prior work experience in the same industry of the new firm is positively associated with growth while prior work experience in other industries is not. Furthermore, it is the technical work experience of founders as opposed to their commercial work experience that determines growth. The fact that within the founding team there are individuals with prior entrepreneurial experiences also results in superior growth. Lastly, we provide evidence that there are synergistic gains from the combination of the complementary capabilities of founders relating to (i) economic managerial and scientific technical education and (ii) technical and commercial industry specific work experiences. We conclude that the human capital of founders of new technology based firms is not just a proxy for personal wealth.
author_names: Massimo G Colombo

Luca Grilli
title: Founders' human capital and the growth of new technology based firms: A competence based view
year: 2003

abstract: Investigates the probability of new firm success or failure based on factors that can be observed at the time of initial startup. Four categories of human and financial capital were considered: (1) general human capital which may reflect the extent to which the entrepreneur has had the opportunity to develop relevant skills and contacts including the entrepreneur's race, gender, education; (2) management know how which reflects management skills and knowledge including the entrepreneur's own skills or skills available through advisors or partners; (3) industry specific know how which reflects specific experience in other businesses; and (4) financial capital which can create a buffer against random shocks and allow the pursuit of more capital intensive strategies. Data were gathered from 1,053 responses from questionnaires sent to owners of firms established within the previous 1 1/2 years. The firms, from a variety of industry sectors and geographical regions in the United States, were tracked over a three year period, during the years 1985 to 1987. Findings show that measures of general human capital impacted both firm survival and growth. One exception to this was gender female owned enterprises were less likely to grow, but just as likely to survive. Amount of initial capital was also shown to influence both survival and growth. However, management know how, number of partners, and having parents who had owned a business had a more limited impact. Significant effects were not found for management level, prior employment in non profit organizations, not having been in the labor force, and the use of professional advisors. It should be possible to predict the future success or failure of new ventures using the four categories of human and financial capital utilized in this study (after dropping the insignificant components of personal characteristics) These measures are readily identifiable at startup, and in some cases potential problems can be identified and remedied. (SFL)
author_names: Arnold C Cooper

F Javier Gimeno-Gascon

Carolyn Y Woo
title: Initial human and financial capital as predictors of new venture performance
year: 1994

abstract: Employing a sample of 180 entrepreneurial high technology ventures based in the United Kingdom, we examine the effects of social capital in key customer relationships on knowledge acquisition and knowledge exploitation. Building on the relational view and on social capital and knowledge based theories, we propose that social capital facilitates external knowledge acquisition in key customer relationships and that such knowledge mediates the relationship between social capital and knowledge exploitation for competitive advantage. Our results indicate that the social interaction and network ties dimensions of social capital are indeed associated with greater knowledge acquisition, but that the relationship quality dimension is negatively associated with knowledge acquisition. Knowledge acquisition is, in turn, positively associated with knowledge exploitation for competitive advantage through new product development, technological distinctiveness, and sales cost efficiency. Further, our results provide evidence that knowledge acquisition plays a mediating role between social capital and knowledge exploitation. Copyright (c) 2001 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.
author_names: Helena Yli-Renko

Erkko Autio

Harry J Sapienza
title: SOCIAL CAPITAL, KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION, AND KNOWLEDGE EXPLOITATION IN YOUNG TECHNOLOGY BASED FIRMS
year: 2001

abstract: Part 1 Foundations of qualitative case study research: the case study approach to research problems types and uses of case study research in education defining a research problem and selecting a case handling theory and literature reviews in case study research. Part 2 mastering qualitative data collection methods: conducting effective interviews being a careful observer mining data from documents. Part 3 Analyzing and reporting case study data: the components of data analysis using special techniques and computers to analyze qualitative data dealing with validity, reliability, and ethics in case study research writing the case study report.
author_names: Sharan B Merriam
title: Case Study Research in Education A Qualitative Approach
year: 1991

abstract: THE DESIGN OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH. 1. What is Qualitative Research? 2. Case Studies as Qualtitative Research. 3. Designing the Study and Selecting a Sample. COLLECTING QUALITATIVE DATA. 4. Conducting Effective Interviews. 5. Being a Careful Observer. 6. Mining Data from Documents. 7. Collecting Data in Case Studies. ANALYZING AND REPORTING QUALITATIVE DATA. 8. Analytic Techniques and Data Management. 9. Levels of Analysis. 10. Dealing with Validity, Reliability and Ethics. 11. Writing Reports and Case Studies.
author_names: Sharan B Merriam
title: Qualitative research and case study applications in education
year: 1998