Influence of human resource capital information disclosure on investors' share investment intentions: An Australian study

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to apply the strategic human resource management (HRM) perspective to investigate the schematic relationship between the dimensions of human resource (HR) capital information and intentions to use such information in individual investors’ decisions relating to investing equities in the banking industry. Design/methodology/approach: A two-stage empirical study was conducted in 2010 using a four-part HR capital disclosure questionnaire, which was developed and validated in stage 1 (n=145) of the study. In stage 2 (n=157), current or previous shareholders in one of the Australian banking sector corporations participated in the study. The collected data were analyzed using confirmatory factor and logistic regression analyses. Findings: The findings of this explorative study highlight that the individual investors’ perception on the importance of performance management dimension of HR capital information has varied impacts on their intentions to use such information in investment decisions to buy, hold on to, or sell stocks. Practical implications: This study has made an important contribution to the strategic HRM and behavioral finance literature that the human capital information facilitates the propensity to avoid regrets in selling shares too early (dispositional effect bias) to achieve utility benefits in future which is different from the findings of financial information disclosure study. Originality/value: A recent critical review of HR disclosure indicated that most of the published articles on HR capital have used company annual reports for data source. However, this is the first study that attempts to understand the impact of HR capital disclosure information on investment intentions from individual investors’ schema rather than drawing data from company annual reports.