The expanded scientific and technical human capital model: the addition of a cultural dimension

The original scientific and technical human capital (STHC) model (Bozeman et al. in Int J Technol Manag 22(7/8):716–740, 2001) has been applied in many different research policy studies over the past decade, yielding multiple applications for evaluating the capacity and career development of engineers and scientists. Despite increased use, the model could benefit from further conceptual development so as to be applicable to a wider variety of issues pertaining to capacity building and career development. Of particular importance, the original STHC model does not explicitly address various cultural issues related to gender, race, socioeconomic status, nationality, and disciplinary culture, all factors generally viewed as important to both scientific career trajectories and productivity. To address this issue, we propose a revised STHC model which includes a cultural dimension that overlays the human and social capital components of the original model. In particular, there is an advantage to incorporating a cultural dimension for the application of the STHC model to issues related to science and engineering careers for underrepresented groups and for understanding career barriers of scientists and graduate students.