Resource orchestration of firm-specific human capital and firm performance—the role of collaborative human resource management and entrepreneurial orientation

Abstract

Firm-specific human capital (HC) is widely recognised as the most important resource for superior firm performance. Contemporary literature on the resource-based view (RBV) and resource orchestration has stressed the importance of organising resources, such as firm-specific HC, in order to fully exploit them. However, companies with idiosyncratic resources cannot rely on established resource exploitation practices, making the exploitation of firm-specific HC a complex issue. Nevertheless, few studies have empirically examined how to orchestrate firm-specific HC. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine how resource orchestration—operationalised as collaborative human resource management (CHRM) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) both individually and combined—moderates the relationship between firm-specific HC and firm performance. Based on a sample of 151 Swedish manufacturing firms, the findings demonstrate that CHRM and EO do not independently influence the relationship between firm-specific HC and performance. However, firms with firm-specific HC benefit from either being highly entrepreneurial and relying on CHRM or being non-entrepreneurial and not focusing on CHRM; they perform worst if they are entrepreneurial without using CHRM. Whereas previous RBV-studies on resource exploitation have mainly stressed that HC has to be exploited, this study contributes to the RBV by examining how firm-specific HC should be exploited.