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Journal ArticleDOI

Strategic human resource management, human capital and competitive advantage: is the field going in circles?

John E. Delery, +1 more
- 01 Jan 2017 - 
- Vol. 27, Iss: 1, pp 1-21
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TLDR
In this paper, the authors argue that HRM practices can contribute to a firm's sustainable competitive advantage not only by enhancing employees' ability, and offering motivation and opportunities, but also by shaping supply-side and demand-side mobility constraints.
Abstract
The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm has been consistently used as a backdrop in strategic human resource management (SHRM) research and has the potential to bridge the ‘micro–macro’ divide. The tension between the SHRM and the strategic human capital literature, however, signifies that RBV has not reached its potential. In this paper, we begin with a brief review of the conceptual logic linking human resource management (HRM) practices and firm outcomes that aim at highlighting the different treatment of RBV in the SHRM and strategic human capital literatures. We then propose a conceptual model that suggests that HRM practices are not simple levers that enable firms to create sustainable competitive advantage, as most of the strategic human capital research postulates. On the contrary, we argue that HRM practices can contribute to a firm's sustainable competitive advantage not only by enhancing employees' ability, and offering motivation and opportunities, but also by shaping supply-side and demand-side mobility constraints.

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Journal ArticleDOI

Integrating strategic human capital and strategic human resource management

Abstract: Human capital is an important construct in a variety of fields spanning from micro scholarship in psychology to macro scholarship in economics. Within the various disciplinary perspectives, research focuses on slightly different aspects and levels of human capital within organizations, which may give opportunities for integration. The current paper aims to increase knowledge about human capital within organizations by integrating two streams of research which focus directly on human capital, but have approached human capital in different ways: strategic human capital (SHC), and strategic HRM. We describe both SHC and strategic HRM research streams and propose areas of integration, and directions for future research on human capital in organizations.
Journal ArticleDOI

Global Talent Management and Performance in Multinational Enterprises: A Multilevel Perspective:

TL;DR: In this paper, the link between global talent management and multinational enterprises' (MNEs) performance has not been theorized or empirically tested and a theoretical framework for how GTM links with MNE performance has been developed.
Journal ArticleDOI

Sustainable HRM strategies and employment relationships as drivers of the triple bottom line

TL;DR: In this paper, a conceptual framework capable of analysing the contributions made by strategic human resources management (SHRM) to firm sustainability and competitiveness is developed, in order to identify different sustainable corporate strategies and the way in which they are supported by coherent sustainable HRM strategies.
Journal ArticleDOI

Still in search of strategic human resource management? A review and suggestions for future research with China as an example

TL;DR: This article reviewed SHRM research published in two leading HRM journals (Human Resource Management and Human Resource Management Journal) and found that the trend of psychologization is gathering pace, the range of theoretical perspectives mobilized to inform the studies is actually expanding.
References
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Book ChapterDOI

Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage

TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the link between firm resources and sustained competitive advantage and analyzed the potential of several firm resources for generating sustained competitive advantages, including value, rareness, imitability, and substitutability.
Journal ArticleDOI

A Resource-Based View of the Firm

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the usefulness of analyzing firms from the resource side rather than from the product side, in analogy to entry barriers and growth-share matrices, the concepts of resource position barrier and resource-product matrices are suggested.
Book

Exchange and Power in Social Life

Peter M. Blau
TL;DR: In a seminal work as discussed by the authors, Peter M. Blau used concepts of exchange, reciprocity, imbalance, and power to examine social life and to derive the more complex processes in social structure from the simpler ones.
Journal ArticleDOI

Social Capital, Intellectual Capital, and the Organizational Advantage

TL;DR: In this article, the authors 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.
Book

The theory of the growth of the firm

Edith Penrose
TL;DR: In this article, the authors studied the role of large and small firms in a growing economy and found that large firms are more likely to acquire and merge smaller firms in order to increase their size.
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Trending Questions (2)
Strategic human resource management, human capital and competitive advantage: is the field going in circles?

The paper discusses the tension between SHRM and strategic human capital literature, suggesting that HRM practices contribute to competitive advantage by shaping mobility constraints, not just enhancing abilities.

How human resources management can be instrumental in helping a company create a competitive advantage?

We then propose a conceptual model that suggests that HRM practices are not simple levers that enable firms to create sustainable competitive advantage, as most of the strategic human capital research postulates.