ABSTRACT
Ideas about human capital have developed over a number of centuries, but these ideas were to form as a theory in the West in the 1960s. The contributions of the theory of human capital to economy and culture are widely recognized. This theory evolved on the basis of Western economic growth theory and studies of human behaviour. The determinant of economic development in Western countries has been changed from physical materials to human capital, and the focus on human behaviour has attracted more and more attention from both theoretical and industrial perspectives since the creation of the school of human relations. The conceptualization and theorization of human capital has been promoted and prevailed in Western nations and the research outcomes of human capital and related theories have made great contributions to social, economic, and corporate development. In this study, we shall now apply these theories to the People's Republic of China (PRC) drawing on both Western and Chinese research sources.
