The Effect of Slack Resources on the Relationship between Human Resource Management and Differences in Strategic Focus
Author(s)
Kang, Taeuk , Chen, Hui-Chuan , Taylor, Monty , Walker, Sean ,
Download Full PDF Pages: 149-155 | Views: 616 | Downloads: 162 | DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5039920
Abstract
To effectively respond to the demands of a changing market, a firm must constantly provide better products and services that are recognized as having better quality and/or being innovative. Notably, various studies have shown that better human resource management is a foundation to providing improved products and services. Regarding a firm’s strategic and operational focus on quality, innovation, or both, many studies have argued that a different type of resource is required for the improvement of quality and/or innovation of product and services. Such resources can be classified as exploratory resources to create a new product/service and exploitative resources to redefine and deepen current offerings. To establish ambidexterity within a firm, some firms may emphasize a balance between exploratory and exploitative resources.
Although the understanding of slack resources is quite important, studies on the effects of slack resources to provide flexibility of firm’s strategic and operational execution on firm’s performance have been controversial. In the case of explorative resources, flexible resource management is considered important due to higher uncertainty in comparison to exploitative resource management, which typically requires more slack resources.
Thus, in this study, we argue that the level of quality in human resource management differently influences the effective use of resources, either exploitative or explorative resources. We also attempt to investigate how slack resources affect the relationship between quality of human resource management and different strategic focus, either exploitation or exploration.
Keywords
Exploitation, Exploration, Slack Resource, Human Resource Management
References
i. Aryanto, R., Fontana, A., & Afiff, A. Z. (2015). Strategic human resource management, innovation capability and performance: An empirical study in Indonesia software industry. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 211, 874-879.
ii. Birkinshaw, J., & Gibson, C. (2004). Building an ambidextrous organization. Advanced Institute of management research, paper, (3).
iii. Bou, J. C., & Beltrán, I. (2005). Total quality management, high-commitment human resource strategy and firm performance: an empirical study. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 16(1), 71-86.
iv. Cantarello, S., Filippini, R., & Nosella, A. (2012). Linking human resource management practices and customer satisfaction on product quality. The international journal of human resource management, 23(18), 3906-3924.
v. Chen, C. J., & Huang, Y. F. (2010). Creative workforce density, organizational slack, and innovation performance. Journal of Business Research, 63(4), 411-417.
vi. Daniel, F., Lohrke, F. T., Fornaciari, C. J., & Turner Jr, R. A. (2004). Slack resources and firm performance: a meta-analysis. Journal of Business Research, 57(6), 565-574.
vii. Diaz-Fernandez, M., Pasamar-Reyes, S., & Valle-Cabrera, R. (2017). Human capital and human resource management to achieve ambidextrous learning: A structural perspective. BRQ Business Research Quarterly, 20(1), 63-77.
viii. George, G. (2005). Slack resources and the performance of privately held firms. Academy of management Journal, 48(4), 661-676.
ix. He, Z. L., & Wong, P. K. (2004). Exploration vs. exploitation: An empirical test of the ambidexterity hypothesis. Organization science, 15(4), 481-494.
x. Jansen, J. J., Simsek, Z., & Cao, Q. (2012). Ambidexterity and performance in multiunit contexts: Cross‐level moderating effects of structural and resource attributes. Strategic Management Journal, 33(11), 1286-1303.
xi. Kang, S. C., Morris, S. S., & Snell, S. A. (2007). Relational archetypes, organizational learning, and value creation: Extending the human resource architecture. Academy of management review, 32(1), 236-256.
xii. Kostopoulos, K. C., Bozionelos, N., & Syrigos, E. (2015). Ambidexterity and unit performance: Intellectual capital antecedents and cross‐level moderating effects of human resource practices. Human Resource Management, 54(S1), s111-s132.
xiii. Laursen, K., & Foss, N. J. (2003). New human resource management practices, complementarities and the impact on innovation performance. Cambridge Journal of economics, 27(2), 243-263.
xiv. Lee, C., & Wu, H. (2016). How do slack resources affect the relationship between R&D expenditures and firm performance? R&D Management, 46(53), 958–978.
xv. Liu, W. (2006). Knowledge exploitation, knowledge exploration, and competency trap. Knowledge and Process Management, 13(3), 144-161.
xvi. Lubatkin, M. H., Simsek, Z., Ling, Y., & Veiga, J. F. (2006). Ambidexterity and performance in small-to medium-sized firms: The pivotal role of top management team behavioral integration. Journal of management, 32(5), 646-672.
xvii. March, J. G. (1991). Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning. Organization science, 2(1), 71-87.
xviii. Medcof, J. W., & Song, L. J. (2013). Exploration, exploitation and human resource management practices in cooperative and entrepreneurial HR configurations. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(15), 2911-2926.
xix. Ngo, H. Y., Turban, D., Lau, C. M., & Lui, S. Y. (1998). Human resource practices and firm performance of multinational corporations: Influences of country origin. International journal of human resource management, 9(4), 632-652.
xx. Mishina, Y., Pollock, T. G., & Porac, J. F. (2004). Are more resources always better for growth? Resource stickiness in market and product expansion. Strategic Management Journal, 25(12), 1179-1197.
xxi. Nguyen, P. V., Huynh, H., Trieu, H., & Tran, K. (2019). Internationalization, strategic slack Resources, and firm performance: The case study of Vietnamese enterprises. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 12(3), 144.
xxii. O'Reilly 3rd, C. A., & Tushman, M. L. (2004). The ambidextrous organization. Harvard business review, 82(4), 74.
xxiii. Paeleman, I., & Vanacker, T. (2015). Less is more, or not? On the interplay between bundles of slack resources, firm performance and firm survival. Journal of Management Studies, 52(6), 819-848.
xxiv. Pavlov, A., Mura, M., Franco-Santos, M., & Bourne, M. (2017). Modelling the impact of performance management practices on firm performance: interaction with human resource management practices. Production Planning & Control, 28(5), 431-443.
xxv. Perdomo-Ortiz, J., Gonzalez-Benito, J., & Galende, J. (2009). An analysis of the relationship between total quality management-based human resource management practices and innovation. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 20(5), 1191-1218.
xxvi. Prieto, I. M., & Pilar Pérez Santana, M. (2012). Building ambidexterity: The role of human resource practices in the performance of firms from Spain. Human Resource Management, 51(2), 189-211.
xxvii. Santiago, F., & Alcorta, L. (2012). Human resource management for learning through knowledge exploitation and knowledge exploration: Pharmaceuticals in Mexico. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 23(4), 530-546.
xxviii. Singh, J. (1986). Performance, slack, and risk taking in organizational decision making. Academy of Management Journal, 29, 562–85.
xxix. Snell, S. A., & Youndt, M. A. (1995). Human resource management and firm performance: Testing a contingency model of executive controls. Journal of management, 21(4), 711-737.
xxx. Sok, P., & O'Cass, A. (2015). Achieving service quality through service innovation exploration–exploitation: the critical role of employee empowerment and slack resources. Journal of Services Marketing.
xxxi. Stan, C. V., Peng, M. W., & Bruton, G. D. (2014). Slack and the performance of state-owned enterprises. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 31(2), 473-495.
xxxii. Tan, J. (2003). Curvilinear relationship between organizational slack and firm performance: Evidence from Chinese state enterprises. European Management Journal, 21(6), 740-749.
xxxiii. Tan, J., & Peng, M. W. (2003). Organizational slack and firm performance during economic transitions: Two studies from an emerging economy. Strategic management journal, 24(13), 1249-1263.
xxxiv. Uotila, J., Maula, M., Keil, T., & Zahra, S. A. (2009). Exploration, exploitation, and financial performance: analysis of S&P 500 corporations. Strategic Management Journal, 30(2), 221-231.
xxxv. Vanacker, T., Collewaert, V., & Paeleman, I. (2013). The relationship between slack resources and the performance of entrepreneurial firms: The role of venture capital and angel investors. Journal of Management Studies, 50(6), 1070-1096.
xxxvi. Vanacker, T., Collewaert, V., & Zahra, S. A. (2017). Slack resources, firm performance, and the institutional context: Evidence from privately held European firms. Strategic management journal, 38(6), 1305-1326.
xxxvii. Vorhies, D. W., Orr, L. M., & Bush, V. D. (2011). Improving customer-focused marketing capabilities and firm financial performance via marketing exploration and exploitation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 39(5), 736-756.
xxxviii. Voss, G. B., Sirdeshmukh, D., & Voss, Z. G. (2008). The effects of slack resources and environmentalthreat on product exploration and exploitation. Academy of Management Journal, 51(1), 147-164.
xxxix. Waiganjo, E. W., Mukulu, E., & Kahiri, J. (2012). Relationship between strategic human resource management and firm performance of Kenya’s corporate organizations. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2(10), 62-70.
xl. Wiersma, E. (2017). How and when do firms translate slack into better performance? British Accounting Review, 49(5), 445–59.
xli. Zhang, Y., Yang, Z., & Zhang, T. (2018). Strategic resource decisions to enhance the performance of global engineering services. International Business Review, 27(3), 678–700.
Cite this Article: