When is human capital a valuable resource? The performance effects of Ivy league selection among celebrated CEOs

We investigate whether and when highly trained human capital constitutes a rent‐sustaining resource. Our study of 444 CEOs celebrated on the covers of major U.S. business magazines found an advantage accruing to graduates of selective universities. Such CEOs led firms with higher and more sustained market valuations. The advantage was strongest for undergraduate programs as these related to the kinds of talent demanded of a CEO. The advantage also was greatest in smaller firms where CEO discretion might be highest and for younger CEOs who may benefit most from college and are less able to appropriate rents. Finally, the advantage accrued to graduates of more recent years, when selective schools had become less socially elitist and increasingly meritocratic, thus favoring human versus social capital. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A resource‐based view of manufacturing strategy and the relationship to manufacturing performance

This paper examines manufacturing strategy from the perspective of the resource‐based view of the firm. It explores the role of resources and capabilities in manufacturing plants that cannot be easily duplicated, and for which ready substitutes are not available. Such resources and capabilities are formed by employees' internal learning based on cross‐training and suggestion systems, external learning from customers and suppliers, and proprietary processes and equipment developed by the firm. Based on data from 164 manufacturing plants, the paper empirically demonstrates that competitive advantage in manufacturing (as measured by superior plant performance) results from proprietary processes and equipment which, in turn, is driven by external and internal learning. The implication is that resources such as standard equipment and employees with generic skills obtainable in factor markets are not as effective in achieving high levels of plant performance, since they are freely available to competitors. The paper also demonstrates the important role of internal and external learning in developing resources that are imperfectly imitable and difficult to duplicate. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Similarities and contradictions in the core logic of three strategy research streams

The logical foundations shaping three prominent streams of strategic management thought are summarized and then compared and contrasted. The intent is to determine whether these research streams are restatements of a single core logic using different terms to describe the same phenomena and relationships, or whether they provide alternate, and potentially competing, explanations for effective strategic action. Analysis reveals some concordant assertions, some similarities across pairs of frameworks, and some fundamental contradictions among the various logic sets. Since key elements in the fundamental premises of each research stream present logical contradictions with each of the other two, a strategy derived from an integration of these perspectives creates inconsistencies in a firm’s enacted context, its assumptions about strategy making, and its administrative arrangements. As circumstances change, a firm may be required to undergo a ‘core logic shift’ to maintain consistency between its strategy and its strategic context. When a shift becomes necessary, a firm needs to overcome structural inertia, competitive inertia, organizational momentum, and its current management logic to maintain internal consistency. Additional implications of the comparison of these three logics for both theory and practice are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.