Linking human capital to competitive advantages: Flexibility in a manufacturing firm's supply chain
基于201份制造业供应链管理者的问卷数据,研究发现制造企业的人力资本能提升企业自身的灵活性,进而增强竞争优势,同时供应商的灵活性也通过企业灵活性间接影响竞争优势。
Abstract Flexibility in a manufacturing firm is a strategic choice that advances the firm's superior performance. This is especially true in the emerging supply chain, which makes the firm's environment particularly turbulent. This paper examines the critical relationships between a manufacturing firm's human capital, the firm's flexibility, suppliers' flexibility, and the firm's competitive advantages. Based on questionnaire responses from 201 senior supply chain management professionals in several manufacturing industries, this study establishes direct links between a manufacturing firm's human capital and the firm's superior flexibility, and between a manufacturing firm's flexibility and its competitive advantages. In addition, this research finds that the firm's flexibility mediates the relationship between the firm's human capital and its competitive advantages, as does the connection between the suppliers' flexibility and the firm's competitive advantages. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.