Human resource management and firm performance in Europe through the lens of business systems: best fit,best practice or both?

This study uses the lens of Business Systems theory to explore the importance of geographic context on the link between human resource management and organizational performance. Basing the analysis on ‘HRM bundles of competitive advantage’, drawing evidence from a large-scale survey of European private sector businesses, and using multiple methodologies, we find three distinct geographic regions and 21 ‘HRM bundles of competitive advantage’. Of those bundles 10 were significantly related to performance in one or more regions. The results raise issues about the universal applicability of HRM-performance research and have implications for the standardization of HRM policies and practices within internationally operating organizations.     

家庭资本：家族企业竞争优势的一个重要源泉

在资源优势理论与企业核心能力理论的基础上，本文着重探讨了，资金、技术、管理等都处于劣势的家族企业获得竞争优势的一个重要源泉是家庭资本(社会资本的一个子集)，家庭资本是家族企业潜在资产，不能直接产生竞争优势，但能创造与企业持续竞争优势更直接有关的资产。本文认为对于这些资产，或者仅仅只有家族企业能获得，或者家族企业比非家族企业更容易获得，因此这些家庭资本成为家族企业的独特资源优势，最终导致家族企业竞争优势的形成。     

Smart Specialization for Smart Spatial Development: Innovative Strategies for Building Competitive Advantages in Tourism in Slovakia

This paper's novelty is based on the theoretical and empirical interconnections it traces between competitive advantage, innovation, tourism and spatial development. The tourism sector plays an important role in many regional and national economies, as well as in the global economy. It is a dynamic sector with a high potential for creating new jobs and enterprises, and for making a significant contribution to spatial development.Both Slovakia and many other countries have the potential to become attractive tourist destinations. Realising this potential is a real challenge, but innovation, smart specialization and building ʽsmartʼ competitive advantage provide opportunities to create new tourist destinations. This paper synthesizes theoretical and empirical research focused on competitive advantage, innovation and tourism and highlights their positive impact on smart and sustainable spatial development. Using those results it proposes an innovative approach to building competitive advantage in tourism.     

Creating customer value in the not‐for‐profit sector: a case study of the British Library

• Public sector organisations are being increasingly subjected to both legislative and competitive pressures forcing them to reconsider their relationships with users and customers (Chapman and Cowdell, 1998 ) in order to develop a more overt marketing orientation (defined as focusing on customer needs as the primary drivers of organisational performance (Jobber, 2004 )). The creation of customer value underlies the development of a meaningful marketing orientation, and is a nettle that more public sector and not‐for‐profit organisations will have to grasp. This article considers how a more marketing‐oriented approach was adopted by the British Library in order to clarify and communicate its value proposition to its identified target markets, and in doing so, hopefully achieving a sustainable competitive advantage on an ongoing basis.

Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An intellectual capital perspective of competitive advantage in nonprofit organisations

• Very little systematic research has focused on applying the concept of intellectual capital (IC) within the nonprofit context; particularly in the highly competitive nonprofit environment. Based on a review of the existing literature, this paper firstly contributes to filling this gap by building an argument that IC can be utilised as a competitive tool in nonprofit organisations (NPOs). Secondly, an IC conceptual framework is proposed that explicitly links the attainment of competitive advantage with positive outcomes for NPOs. Finally, the paper discusses how the IC conceptual framework can be effectively utilised to foster competitive advantage in the nonprofit sector.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Strategies for competitive advantage in nonprofit organisations

In the commercial sector, a range of strategies has been proposed for competitive advantage. Many of these strategies are inappropriate for nonprofit organisations. (The terms ‘nonprofit’, ‘not-for-profit’ and ‘charity’ are used interchangeably in this paper.) This paper proposes four generic strategies for competitive advantage in nonprofit organisations: externally driven, niche, differentiation and awareness. The niche strategy has two sub-strategies: the issue or emotional niche and the geographical niche. Differentiation has three sub-strategies; differentiation by audience, differentiation by product and differentiation by belief. These four strategies are not mutually exclusive and many nonprofit organisations move from one strategy to another. A development model for these transitions is proposed.     

The double effects of female executives' participation on corporate sustainable competitive advantage through unethical environmental behavior and proactive environmental strategy

Based on the upper echelons theory, ecofeminist theory, and natural resource‐based theory (NRBV), this study has constructed a relational model between female executives' participation, unethical environmental behavior, proactive environmental strategy, and corporate sustainable competitive advantage. The samples include a total of 496 female executives from listed 524 companies in the manufacturing sector in China, and multiple regression methods are used for the analysis. The study showed that female executives' participation had double positive effects on corporate sustainable competitive advantage, which included both the inhibiting effect on unethical environmental behavior and the stimulating effect on proactive environmental strategies. The study also explored the boundary conditions of “conservative” and “proactive” behaviors from the internal and external perspectives of enterprises. But it was shown that the effect would not be further improved when both moderation effects of environmental stakeholder pressure and environmental leadership were higher at the same time. As enterprises' behaviors should match with their capability range, radical behaviors might run counter to their desires.     

HR strategy and competitive advantage in the service sector

While taking its cue from studies of high‐performance work systems in manufacturing, this article examines theory and research on the potential for HR advantage in the service sector, building directly on recent studies of market segmentation and HR strategy in the sector. The article uses these studies, along with strategic management theory, to put forward a new typology of market characteristics, competitive dynamics and HR strategy in services. Three broad types of competition, ranging from mass market to knowledge‐intensive services, are identified. This framework helps the article to explore the issue of whether competitive differentiation through human resources is possible only in high‐skill areas such as professional services. It argues that opportunities for HR advantage are broader; they exist where quality and/or knowledge are important in competitive strategy. However, seeing the opportunity is not the same as achieving the result. Service firms that identify and pursue these opportunities face the problems of building and maintaining barriers to imitation, and of managing the ‘politics of appropriation’.     

我国竞技体育后备人才培养投入产出效益研究

为了探讨我国竞技体育后备人才培养投入产出效益如何,本文采用文献资料和逻辑分析法等,以两届全国运动会周期财政拨款为投入,以少年组获前8名运动员人数为产出进行对比研究。研究表明,各省(自治区、直辖市)在竞技体育人才培养投入方面都比之前有所增加,除个别省(自治区、直辖市)外。经济发达地区增幅高于经济发展中地区,经济发展中地区增幅高于经济欠发达地区。总投入、人均投入经济发达地区占绝对优势。优秀人才产出经济发达地区较高,经济发展中地区略高,经济欠发达地区略低。因此,人才产出效益总体是与投入相关。为此,针对性的提出了加大我国竞技体育后备人才培养资金投入,完善竞技体育后备人才培养的体制,促进我国竞技体育可持续发展的对策建议。     

产品差异、转移成本和创新激励

文章在豪泰林空间差异化模型的基础上构建了静态完全信息博弈模型,研究转移成本和生产成本对市场竞争产生的影响以及转移成本下企业的创新激励。     

Total quality management and sustainable competitive advantage

Although it is generally accepted that Total Quality Management (TQM) can generate a sustainable competitive advantage, there is, surprisingly, little or no theory to underpin that belief. Therefore, the primary purpose of this paper is to explore the validity of the claim. By drawing on the market-based theory of competitive advantage, resource-based theory of the firm, and systems theory, we are able to conclude that the belief is warranted. We deduce that the content of TQM is capable of producing a cost- or differentiation-based advantage, and that the tacitness and complexity that are inherent in the process of TQM have the potential to generate the barriers to imitation that are necessary for sustainability.     

基于价值工程的企业竞争优势构建

动态复杂的环境下,应当树立什么样的经营理念,采取何种经营机制、何种管理技术获取竞争优势,实现可持续发展,益已成为企业面临的迫切课题。与其同时,价值工程(简称VE)作为现代思想方法和管理技术,应用领域不断扩充,出现了不少以企业管理为研究对象的优秀成果。在此背景下,本文把价值工程运用于企业竞争优势构造,从竞争优势的四个层面展开,试图构造一个以功能为导向的竞争优势构造模式。     

Analysing the importance of sustainability‐oriented service quality in competition environment

The logistics sector is one of the most important domains in the service sector in understanding the increasing scale of business activities along with globalization. Due to the nature of the service sector, where competition is increasingly concentrated, the main objective of firms is the creation of their strategy on competitive advantage in regard with knowing the level of quality of the services offered and the firm's image from the customers' point of view. Trying to adapt to the changing conditions of the market drives firms to integrate their competing areas into their sustainability dimensions (economic, social, and environmental) with the aim of increasing their perceived quality through differentiating their business to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. The aim of this study is to examine the quality level perceived by logistics service providers in terms of triple bottom line approach and to determine the relationship between them for sustainable competition. In line with exploratory methods, factor analysis was used with the aim of finding out a new scale to the literature about the examination of the relationship between quality perception and corporate sustainability in the frame of competition. In this context, data of 120 logistics service providers were collected and analysed. According to the results, the content of the subject consists of nine factors and 29 interrelated subdimensions. As a result of the research, firms have emphasized on the importance of reaching the competition by expanding their quality perceptions within the scope of corporate sustainability in parallel with the increasing customer demands and expectations.     

创造企业竞争优势:内部资源,外部网络及其整合

随着环境与技术的变化，组织网络已经成为企业生存环境的重要组成部分。尽管资源学派强调组织内部的资源能力是竞争优势的主要来源，企业外部网络对竞争优势的贡献也已经被越来越多的学者所认识。本文在进一步归纳两种不同竞争优势来源观的基础上，重点讨论了内部资源能力与外部网络在创造竞争优势时的互动关系，最后通过理性期望模型分析了内部资源能力与外部网络及其整合对建立企业竞争优势的作用。     

Human Resource Strategy and Competitive Advantage: A Longitudinal Study of Engineering Consultancies

Concepts associated with the resource-based view of the firm are increasingly finding their way into the strategic HRM debate. Drawing on this literature, this paper reports one of the first industry-based, longitudinal investigations into the relationship between human resource strategy and competitive advantage. Set in New Zealand, but in an internationally oriented sector, the study examines one of the more neglected spheres of professional services: engineering consultancies. The results indicate that the consultancy firms that survived the major business traumas of the late 1980s and early 1990s adopted similar structural, competitive, operational and HR responses associated with their evolving 'industry recipe'. In interpreting the relationship between HRM and firm performance, then, it is important to distinguish those features of a firm's HRM which are strategic to ongoing viability from those that might form the basis of a relatively enduring form of competitive advantage. While there is insufficient evidence to conclude that any of the primary subjects in this study have established an enviable form of superiority, the study suggests that opportunities do exist for professional service firms to develop industry leadership through superior HRM. The analysis has implications for the wider work of theory-building in strategic HRM.     

High-involvement practices in human resource management: concept and factors that motivate their adoption

Using data on 250 Spanish firms, we examine the incidence of high-involvement practices and investigate what variables are associated with the adoption of these practices. Particularly, we analyse the influence of size, age, competitive advantage, activity sector, the existence of a recent crisis, culture, leadership style and the competitiveness of the environment on the adoption of high-involvement work practices. With all this, we try to offer an exploratory view of nature of the contexts that condition the adoption of such practices, with the aim of motivating future research more thoroughly.     

城市产业战略的若干理论及应用--以上海市嘉定区产业定位为例

城市产业的战略定位关系着城市发展的成败,现有产业定位在理论上主要依据比较优势理论(绝对优势论、比较优势论、机会成本说)或比较优势理论的延伸(区域分工理论).事实上,随着全球化进程的推进,跨国公司可以在全球范围内组织资源,原有的基于特殊生产要素的比较优势逐渐衰退,而内涵更广的竞争优势越来越成为决定一个城市发展成功与否的关键.而且现有产业定位研究在对象层面上以区域为主,随着全球化城市网络体系的形成,区域之间的竞争越来越体现为城市之间的竞争,因此对城市产业定位的研究更显重要.文章将对产业定位的已有若干理论进行回顾总结,并引入竞争优势理论、新贸易理论和城市化阶段理论,提出城市产业定位的区域视角、竞争视角、城市化视角等的一般方法.并以上海嘉定的产业定位为例,阐述上述理论的具体实践.     

Spinoff dynamics beyond clusters: pre-entry experience and firm survival in peripheral regions

This paper investigates local spinoff dynamics in manufacturing industries in peripheral areas. It focuses on the question whether local inheritance of competences and routines from parent firm to spinoff is also relevant for firm survival in peripheral areas. The analysis is based on a unique data-set, tracking all manufacturing firms at five observation points during the time span of 1980–2004 in two case study regions in Switzerland. The results show that the local inheritance of capabilities gives spinoffs a competitive advantage in peripheral regions as well. Further, the findings suggest that spinoff dynamics differ between different types of peripheral regions, depending on their varying local economic conditions. Finally, spinoff dynamics in the periphery might be characterized by a stronger hostility of larger parent firms towards spinoffs. This research adds a distinct peripheral perspective to the entrepreneurial heritage literature and advocates for a more nuanced discussion on spinoff dynamics in varying geographical settings.     

Unionisation structures, productivity and firm performance: New insights from a heterogeneous firm model

This paper introduces collective bargaining at the firm and at the sector level into the heterogeneous firm model of Melitz and Ottaviano (Melitz, M. J., Ottaviano, G. I. P., 2008. Market size, trade, and productivity. Review of Economic Studies 75 (1), 295-316). It then analyses how the two bargaining regimes change aggregate industry productivity and firm performance relative to a competitive labour market. While sector-level bargaining forces the least productive firms to exit and thus increases average productivity relative to the competitive benchmark, firm-level bargaining allows less productive firms to stay in the market and thus reduces average productivity. Sector-level bargaining also results in higher average output and profit levels than either firm-level bargaining or a competitive labour market. The paper also shows that the choice between sector- and firm-level bargaining can involve a trade-off between product variety and product prices: Not only the average price level but also product variety tends to be lower under sector-level bargaining than under firm-level bargaining.     

运用VE营造企业竞争优势的可能性探讨

动态复杂的环境下,竞争优势业已成为众多企业竞相追逐的焦点,而价值工程(简称VE)为更好地服务于企业,正不断地扩充其应用范围。本文从论述竞争优势的实务性要求和价值工程的发展方向入手,论述了运用价值工程理论营造企业竞争优势的可能性。