Abstract Against the backdrop of enterprises’ high-quality development, exploring how job characteristics influence enterprise innovation performance has emerged as a core research topic in the field of management. Based on 670 survey data samples collected from 29 provinces, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and autonomous regions across China, this study employs empirical research methods to test a constructed multi-path theoretical model. The purpose is to examine the mediating roles of enterprise human capital and job well-being, as well as the dual moderating effect of job well-being, in the relationship between job characteristics and enterprise innovation performance. The results indicate that: (1) Enterprise human capital is defined as a three-dimensional core construct integrating enterprise human capital accumulation, enterprise human capital upgrading, and enterprise human capital structure optimization; (2) Job characteristics exert a significant direct positive impact on enterprise innovation performance (β = 0.808, p < 0.001), and indirectly promote enterprise innovation performance through two parallel mediating pathways—enterprise human capital (indirect effect = 0.371) and job well-being (indirect effect=0.170)—as well as one serial mediating pathway: “job characteristics → enterprise human capital → job well-being → enterprise innovation performance” (indirect effect=0.065); (3) Job well-being plays a dual moderating role: on the one hand, it positively strengthens the relationship between job characteristics and enterprise human capital (β = 7.912, p < 0.001); on the other hand, it negatively moderates the direct link between job characteristics and enterprise innovation performance (β = −0.172, p < 0.001); (4) The moderated mediating effect is significant: job well-being enhances the indirect effect of job characteristics on enterprise innovation performance via enterprise human capital. This study enriches human capital theory, supplements the literature on job well-being, expands the “job-performance” relationship framework, and provides practical guidance for Chinese enterprises to promote innovation-driven development.
Zhang et al. (Thu,) studied this question.