Does organization capital increase firm risk? Evidence from firms with human resource executives

Abstract

We investigate whether and how organization capital affects firm risk using the presence of human resource executives (HREs) in top management teams as an indicator of superior human resource management, a specific component of organization capital. Based on a comprehensive sample of the largest firms in the U.S., we find that the stock market performance of firms with HREs is significantly worse than that of other firms at the worst times for the market. We also find that firms with HREs are more likely to be poor stock-market performers at the worst times for the market even if we control for other factors known to affect firm risk. The results suggest that firms with HREs and thus greater stock of organization capital are fundamentally riskier than other firms.