Working paper by Pavel Travkin, Marina Lopatina et al.

Working paper "A Longitudinal Investigation of Antecedents Formal Training In  Russian Firms: Socio-Technical Systems and Financial Slack  Perspective" is avalable at SSRN.

Garavan T., Travkin P., Lopatina M., O'Brien F. (2024) A Longitudinal Investigation of Antecedents Formal Training In Russian Firms: Socio-Technical Systems and Financial Slack Perspective. SSRN preprint, available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4963969

The use of formal training by organizations worldwide is on the rise. To date, research has investigated different antecedents explaining firm decisions to invest in training, however many studies are cross-sectional and focus on a small number of dimensions. To help advance research on the antecedents of formal training in Russian firms utilizing socio-technical systems and financial slack theories to investigate people, technical, organisational subsystems and environment antecedents and moderators. Utilizing a 7-wave data set (2016-2022) we found evidence of both positive and negative impacts of different subsystem components. We found support for the moderating role of financial slack on several of these direct relationships. Our theoretical perspective provides a comprehensive more integrated understanding of the antecedents of training in Russian firms and highlights that financial slack is a key contingency in explaining these relationships.

Keywords: Investment in Training, Russian Firms, Socio-Technical Systems Theory, Antecedents of Training Investments, Financial Slack