Knowledge management and organizational competitiveness: a framework for human capital analysis

Abstract

Knowledge management literature highlights the fact that, in the new economy, the achievement of a sustained competitive advantage depends on firm's capacity to develop and deploy its knowledge‐based resources. However, not all resources are equally important for the achievement of this competitive edge. In this sense, this paper proposes an integrative framework for the analysis of human capital combining the advances from three different areas of research: knowledge management, intellectual capital, and strategic human resource management. Juxtaposing two dimensions – value and uniqueness – it analyzes the different forms of firm's human capital. These are the following: idiosyncratic, ancillary, core and compulsory. Furthermore different human resources practices that should be used to manage such specific forms of human capital are described.