Uncovering configurations of HRM service provider intellectual capital and worker human capital for creating high HRM service value using fsQCA

Abstract

Although traditionally applied independently, this study combines two theoretical perspectives – the intellectual capital theory and the consumer perspective – to uncover value-creating configurations of human resource management (HRM) service providers' and workers' knowledge resources. We examined workers' perceptions of the value of provided HRM services using data from a sample of more than 2000 workers and the HR professionals that serve them. Using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis techniques, we found that the HRM provider's intellectual capital is a necessary, but not always sufficient, condition for high HRM service value. Further, our results show that workers can fulfil a ‘substitute for competence role’ when they rely on their own well-developed knowledge and skills to substitute for HRM professional inabilities. Accordingly, this study highlights the need for studying value co-creation in HRM research, that is, how both HR professionals' and workers' attributes and actions interrelate for explaining the outcomes of HRM services.