HUMAN CAPITAL INVESTMENT AND FIRM FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF EMPLOYEE WELL-BEING AND THE MODERATING ROLE OF FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS IN PROJECT-BASED ORGANISATIONS IN UZBEKISTAN

Firms often treat spending on employee training, development and well-being as a discretionary expense rather than an investment. The aim of this article is to examine whether human capital investment improves firm financial performance through employee well-being, and whether this effect depends on the firm's financial constraints. The study integrates human capital theory, the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model and the corporate finance literature on financing constraints. A moderated-mediation model is proposed in which employee well-being mediates the link between human capital investment