Business Commons^™

Rethinking Sustained Competitive Advantage From Human Capital, Benjamin Campbell, Russell Coff, David Kryscynski

Faculty Publications

The strategy literature often emphasizes firm-specific human capital as a source of competitive advantage based on the assumption that it constrains employee mobility. This paper first identifies three boundary conditions that limit the applicability of this logic. It then offers a more comprehensive framework of human capital-based advantage that explores both demand- and supply-side mobility constraints. The critical insight is that these mobility constraints have more explanatory power than the firm-specificity of human capital.