IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rom/econmn/v16y2013i2p255-276.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Human Capital as Source for Sustained Competitive Advantages in SMEs: A Core Competencies Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Carlos M. F-JARDON

    (Department of Applied Economics, University of Vigo (Spain))

  • Miguel GONZALEZ-LOUREIRO

    (Department of Business Management and Marketing, University of Vigo (Spain))

Abstract

Human capital is a source of competitive advantage, since it helps to build core competencies which position the company above its competitors. Core competencies are dynamic competencies of superior hierarchy, which integrate, build and reconfigure internal and external factors of business to create value. Core competencies are competitive advantages when an organization gets better performance than competitors. Human capital is source of competitive advantage but it possibly does not directly affect to performance. It needs to associate with other elements in core competencies. These associations are not well known. That is the goal of this paper: to determine how human capital affects the organizational performance through core competencies. We argue that human capital needs other intellectual capital-based elements to constitute core competencies which finally improve and yields above average performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos M. F-JARDON & Miguel GONZALEZ-LOUREIRO, 2013. "Human Capital as Source for Sustained Competitive Advantages in SMEs: A Core Competencies Approach," Economia. Seria Management, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 16(2), pages 255-276, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:rom:econmn:v:16:y:2013:i:2:p:255-276
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.management.ase.ro/reveconomia/2013-2/5.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lee Cronbach, 1951. "Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 16(3), pages 297-334, September.
    2. Jeffrey G. Covin & John E. Prescott & Dennis P. Slevin, 1990. "The Effects Of Technological Sophistication On Strategic Profiles, Structure And Firm Performance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(5), pages 485-510, September.
    3. David G. Sirmon & Michael A. Hitt, 2009. "Contingencies within dynamic managerial capabilities: interdependent effects of resource investment and deployment on firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(13), pages 1375-1394, December.
    4. Changiz Valmohammadi & Azadeh Servati, 2011. "Performance measurement system implementation using Balanced Scorecard and statistical methods," International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 60(5), pages 493-511, June.
    5. Pawan S. Budhwar & Harsh K. Luthar & Jyotsna Bhatnagar, 2006. "The Dynamics of HRM Systems in Indian BPO Firms," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 27(3), pages 339-360, June.
    6. Anand, Jaideep & Brenes, Estaban R. & Karnani, Aneel & Rodriquez, Arnoldo, 2006. "Strategic responses to economic liberalization in emerging economies: Lessons from experience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 365-371, March.
    7. Unger, Jens M. & Rauch, Andreas & Frese, Michael & Rosenbusch, Nina, 2011. "Human capital and entrepreneurial success: A meta-analytical review," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 341-358, May.
    8. David J. Teece & Gary Pisano & Amy Shuen, 1997. "Dynamic capabilities and strategic management," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(7), pages 509-533, August.
    9. Ferligoj, Anuska & Prasnikar, Janez & Jordan, Vesna, 1997. "Competitive Advantage and Human Resource Management in SMEs in a Transitional Economy," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 9(6), pages 503-514, December.
    10. Yasemin Y. Kor, 2003. "Experience-Based Top Management Team Competence and Sustained Growth," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(6), pages 707-719, December.
    11. Ortega, María José Ruiz, 2010. "Competitive strategies and firm performance: Technological capabilities' moderating roles," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(12), pages 1273-1281, December.
    12. Brenes, Esteban R. & Mena, Mauricio & Molina, German E., 2008. "Key success factors for strategy implementation in Latin America," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(6), pages 590-598, June.
    13. Dong-Jae Kim & Bruce Kogut, 1996. "Technological Platforms and Diversification," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 7(3), pages 283-301, June.
    14. Constance E. Helfat & Marvin B. Lieberman, 2002. "The birth of capabilities: market entry and the importance of pre-history," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 11(4), pages 725-760, August.
    15. Kraaijenbrink, Jeroen & Spender, JC & Groen, Aard, 2009. "The resource-based view: A review and assessment of its critiques," MPRA Paper 21442, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Katchova, Ani L., 2010. "Structural changes in U.S. agriculture: Financial performance of farms in transition," 114th Seminar, April 15-16, 2010, Berlin, Germany 60965, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. González-Loureiro, Miguel & Pita-Castelo, Jose, 2012. "A model for assessing the contribution of innovative SMEs to economic growth: The intangible approach," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(3), pages 312-315.
    18. Nile W. Hatch & Jeffrey H. Dyer, 2004. "Human capital and learning as a source of sustainable competitive advantage," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(12), pages 1155-1178, December.
    19. Tymon Jr., Walter G. & Stumpf, Stephen A. & Doh, Jonathan P., 2010. "Exploring talent management in India: The neglected role of intrinsic rewards," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 109-121, April.
    20. Balaji S. Chakravarthy, 1986. "Measuring strategic performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(5), pages 437-458, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Demyen Suzana, 2015. "The Relationship Between Human Resource, Managerial Performance And The Economic Competitiveness Of The Enterprise," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1, pages 169-176, January.
    2. Carlos M. Jardon & Xavier Martinez-Cobas, 2022. "Leadership and Marketing Capabilities in Small Businesses of Subsistence Marketplaces," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, April.
    3. Chaiwichit Chianchana & Sageemas Na Wichian, 2016. "Assessment Of Performance Competency In The Organization: Dimensionality Oriented Assessment," Polish Journal of Management Studies, Czestochowa Technical University, Department of Management, vol. 13(2), pages 27-35, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carlos M. F-Jardón, 2011. "Deployment of Core Competencies to obtain success in SMEs," Working Papers 1106, Universidade de Vigo, Departamento de Economía Aplicada.
    2. Rui Baptista & Murat Karaöz & João Correia Leitão, 2020. "Diversification by young, small firms: the role of pre-entry resources and entry mistakes," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 103-122, June.
    3. Huatao Peng & Chen Zhou & Yang Liu, 2020. "Entrepreneurial Experience and Performance: From the Aspect of Sustainable Growth of Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-24, September.
    4. Heng Liu & Xiu-hao Ding & Hai Guo & Jin-hui Luo, 2014. "How does slack affect product innovation in high-tech Chinese firms: The contingent value of entrepreneurial orientation," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 47-68, March.
    5. Barrett, Gillian & Dooley, Lawrence & Bogue, Joe, 2021. "Open innovation within high-tech SMEs: A study of the entrepreneurial founder's influence on open innovation practices," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    6. Yaqun Yi & Yuan Li & Michael A. Hitt & Yi Liu & Zelong Wei, 2016. "The influence of resource bundling on the speed of strategic change: Moderating effects of relational capital," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 435-467, June.
    7. Elia, Stefano & Giuffrida, Maria & Mariani, Marcello M. & Bresciani, Stefano, 2021. "Resources and digital export: An RBV perspective on the role of digital technologies and capabilities in cross-border e-commerce," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 158-169.
    8. Dirk Dohse & Sascha Walter, 2012. "Knowledge context and entrepreneurial intentions among students," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(4), pages 877-895, November.
    9. Oliver Alexy & Joel West & Helge Klapper & Markus Reitzig, 2018. "Surrendering control to gain advantage: Reconciling openness and the resource‐based view of the firm," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(6), pages 1704-1727, June.
    10. Raveendra Chittoor & MB Sarkar & Sougata Ray & Preet S. Aulakh, 2009. "Third-World Copycats to Emerging Multinationals: Institutional Changes and Organizational Transformation in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 187-205, February.
    11. Anthony Brown & Royston Meriton & Timothy Devinney & Mario Kafouros & Flor Silvestre Gerardo & Rajinder Bhandal, 2021. "Migrant human and political capitals value in entrepreneur enterprise performance. A comparative study of four emerging markets," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 665-692, June.
    12. Bárbara Larrañeta & José Luis Galán González & Rocio Aguilar, 2017. "Early efforts to develop absorptive capacity and their performance implications: differences among corporate and independent ventures," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 485-509, June.
    13. Davide Consoli & Pier Paolo Patrucco, 2011. "Complexity and the Coordination of Technological Knowledge: The Case of Innovation Platforms," Chapters, in: Handbook on the Economic Complexity of Technological Change, chapter 8 Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Teixeira, Aurora A.C. & Tavares-Lehmann, Ana Teresa, 2014. "Human capital intensity in technology-based firms located in Portugal: Does foreign ownership matter?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 737-748.
    15. Nils Grashof, 2020. "Sinking or swimming in the cluster labour pool? A firm-specific analysis of the effect of specialized labour," Jena Economics Research Papers 2020-006, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    16. Zouaghi, Ferdaous & Sánchez, Mercedes & Martínez, Marian García, 2018. "Did the global financial crisis impact firms' innovation performance? The role of internal and external knowledge capabilities in high and low tech industries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 92-104.
    17. Malen, Joel, 2015. "Motivating And Enabling Firm Innovation Effort: Integrating Penrosian And Behavioral Theory Perspectives On Slack Resources," Hitotsubashi Journal of commerce and management, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 49(1), pages 37-54, October.
    18. Pettus, Michael L. & Kor, Yasemin Y. & Mahoney, Joseph T., 2007. "A Theory of Change in Turbulent Environments: The Sequencing of Dynamic Capabilities Following Industry Deregulation," Working Papers 07-0100, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    19. Trippel, Arthur, 2015. "Born Globals: Darstellung und kritische Würdigung," Ilmenauer Schriften zur Betriebswirtschaftslehre, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre, volume 1, number 12015.
    20. Ron A. Boschma & Anet B.R. Weterings, 2005. "The effect of regional differences on the performance of software firms in the Netherlands," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(5), pages 567-588, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sustained Competitive Advantage; human capital; intellectual capital; SMEs; core competencies.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • M21 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics - - - Business Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rom:econmn:v:16:y:2013:i:2:p:255-276. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ciocoiu Nadia Carmen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mnasero.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.