The Integration of Strategic Resources of a Company in the Context of the New Economy: A Conceptual Model

Abstract

Based on the resource-based view of the firm, the paper introduces the conceptual analysis of the interrelationships between the key internal strategic resources of a firm: human resource management systems, human capital and knowledge. The considered resources were mainly analyzed by the previous research within the separate disciplinary domains and therefore may benefit from cross-domain integration. We build the conceptual scheme of interrelationships between strategic resources and discuss how these interrelationships may vary under different knowledge management (codification/personalization) and human resource management (control/commitment) strategies. Based on the analysis, we introduce four different configurations of strategies: “codification — control”, “personalization — commitment”, “codification — commitment”, and “personalization — control” and anticipate potential benefits of complementary configurations. The contribution of the study to the scholarship is in the conceptual explanation of the previous research findings on positive effects of complementary strategies and negative effects of conflicting strategies. In terms of practical implications, the paper provides analytical framework that can be used as a tool in a company’s strategizing process. The study highlights the importance of achieving complementarity between a company’s knowledge management and human resource management strategies as a way of avoiding dysfunctional organizational behavior.