Scholars of the theory of the firm have begun to emphasize the sources and conditions of what has been described as “the organizational advantage,” rather than focus on the causes and consequences of market failure. Typically, researchers see such organizational advantage as accruing from the particular capabilities organizations have for creating and sharing knowledge. In this article we seek to contribute to this body of work by developing the following arguments: (1) social capital facilitates the creation of new intellectual capital; (2) organizations, as institutional settings, are conducive to the development of high levels of social capital; and (3) it is because of their more dense social capital that firms, within certain limits, have an advantage over markets in creating and sharing intellectual capital. We present a model that incorporates this overall argument in the form of a series of hypothesized relationships between different dimensions of social capital and the main mechanisms and proces...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/259373.pdf

Social Capital, Intellectual Capital, and the Organizational Advantage

This paper comprehensively examined the linkages between systems of High Performance Work Practices and firm performance. Results based on a national sample of nearly one thousand firms indicate that these practices have an economically and statistically significant impact on both intermediate outcomes (turnover and productivity) and short- and long-term measures of corporate financial performance. Support for the predictions that the impact of High Performance Work Practices is in part contingent on their interrelationships and links with competitive strategy was limited.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1803666_code1640113.pdf?abstractid=1803666&mirid=5&type=2

The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Turnover, Productivity, and Corporate Financial Performance

This study comprehensively evaluated the links between systems of High Performance Work Practices and firm performance. Results based on a national sample of nearly one thousand firms indicate that these practices have an economically and statistically significant impact on both intermediate employee outcomes (turnover and productivity) and short- and long-term measures of corporate financial performance. Support for predictions that the impact of High Performance Work Practices on firm performance is in part contingent on their interrelationships and links with competitive strategy was limited. The impact of human resource management (HRM) policies and prac

/pdf/the-impact-of-human-resource-management-practices-on-hesrlz2jwc.pdf

The Impact Of Human Resource Management Practices On Turnover, Productivity, And Corporate Financial Performance

Most theorizing on the relationship between corporate social/environmental performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) assumes that the current evidence is too fractured or too variable to draw any generalizable conclusions. With this integrative, quantitative study, we intend to show that the mainstream claim that we have little generalizable knowledge about CSP and CFP is built on shaky grounds. Providing a methodologically more rigorous review than previous efforts, we conduct a meta-analysis of 52 studies (which represent the population of prior quantitative inquiry) yielding a total sample size of 33,878 observations. The meta-analytic findings suggest that corporate virtue in the form of social responsibility and, to a lesser extent, environmental responsibility is likely to pay off, although the operationalizations of CSP and CFP also moderate the positive association. For example, CSP appears to be more highly correlated with accounting-based measures of CFP than with market-based ...

/pdf/corporate-social-and-financial-performance-a-meta-analysis-21bp3gts9c.pdf

Corporate Social and Financial Performance: A Meta-Analysis

We outline a supply and demand model of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Based on this framework, we hypothesize that a firm's level of CSR will depend on its size, level of diversification, research and development, advertising, government sales, consumer income, labor market conditions, and stage in the industry life cycle. From these hypotheses, we conclude that there is an “ideal” level of CSR, which managers can determine via cost-benefit analysis, and that there is a neutral relationship between CSR and financial performance.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/259398.pdf

Corporate Social Responsibility: a Theory of the Firm Perspective

Firms compete for reputational status in institutional fields. Managers attempt to influence other stakeholders' assessments by signaling firms' salient advantages. Stakeholders gauge firms' relati...

What's in a Name? Reputation Building and Corporate Strategy

ENVIRONMENT, STRATEGY, AND ORGANIZATION. The External Context of Human Resource Management (C. Fombrun). The Organizational Context of Strategic Human Resource Management (N. Tichy, et al.). A Framework for Strategic Human Resource Management (M. Devanna, et al.). THE STRATEGIC ROLE OF THE HUMAN RESOURCE SYSTEMS. Strategic Staffing (E. Miller). Strategic Staffing at Chase Manhattan Bank (C. Borucki and A. Lafley). The Appraisal System as a Strategic Control (G. Latham). STRATEGIC ISSUES IN HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT. Bringing Human Resources into Strategic Planning: Systems Design Considerations (P. Lorange and D. Murphy). Managing Human Resources in a Declining Context (T. Gimore and L. Hirschhorn). Human Resource Policies for the Innovating Organization (J. Galbraith). HUMAN RESOURCES: THE CEO's PERSPECTIVE. An Interview with Reginald Jones and Frank Doyle (C. Fombrun). An Interview with Edson Spencer and Doston Boyle (N. Tichy). References. Index.

Strategic Human Resource Management

Introduction: why reputations matter. Part 1 The hidden value of a good reputation: going for the gold what's in a name? enlightened self-interest reputational capital the Midas touch shaping consistent images of pageants and horse races managing reputation. Part 2 The ups and downs of reputation: fashion's ins and outs the MBA academies under siege so you want a new identity pitching arm and hammer the deal-makers doing good, the Morgan way song of Solomon. Conclusion: the burden of celebrity.

Reputation: Realizing Value from the Corporate Image

Measures of corporate reputation currently in widespread use suffer from fundamental methodological and conceptual weaknesses. This paper begins with a brief overview of the reputation construct and its expected dimensionality. It then examines some of the major indices in use and documents their principal weaknesses. A new instrument is proposed — ‘the reputation quotientSM (RQ) — to measure corporate reputations and establish its empirical validity and reliability through focus groups and pilot studies. It concludes that the reputation quotient is a robust measure of corporate reputations that considerably improves the state of the art in reputation measurement.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Fbm.2000.10.pdf

The Reputation QuotientSM: A multi-stakeholder measure of corporate reputation

It is argued that no simple correlation can be established between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance. The activities that generate CSP do not directly impact the company's financial performance, but instead affect the bottom line via its stock of reputational capital - the financial value of its intangible assets. It is suggested that corporate citizenship programs can be designed to help companies address reputational threats and opportunities to achieve reputational gains while mitigating reputational losses.

Charles J. Fombrun

Papers

What's in a Name? Reputation Building and Corporate Strategy

Strategic Human Resource Management

Reputation: Realizing Value from the Corporate Image

The Reputation QuotientSM: A multi-stakeholder measure of corporate reputation

Opportunity Platforms and Safety Nets: Corporate Citizenship and Reputational Risk