Endogenous rural dynamics: an analysis of labour markets, human resource practices and firm performance

Anne Margarian, Cecile Detang-Dessendre, Aleksandra Barczak () and Corinne Tanguy ()
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Anne Margarian: Thünen Institute of Market Analysis
Aleksandra Barczak: Département EcoSocio - Département Économie et Sciences Sociales pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CESAER - Centre d'économie et de sociologie rurales appliquées à l'agriculture et aux espaces ruraux - UBFC - Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté [COMUE] - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Dijon - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement
Corinne Tanguy: CESAER - Centre d'économie et de sociologie rurales appliquées à l'agriculture et aux espaces ruraux - UBFC - Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté [COMUE] - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Dijon - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement

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Abstract: Abstract Some rural locations in industrialized countries have experienced considerable employment growth in the last decades, while others suffer from depopulation and decline. The paper aims to contribute to the development of an evolutionary approach that allows for the identification of those often difficult-to-observe evolving factors that explain success and failure of rural locations. It also wants to show how the combined recognition of evolutionary labour market perspectives, the dynamic capability view of the firm, and human resource management (HRM) theories can serve the operationalisation of evolutionary explanations in this context. According to the derived model, apparent locational disadvantages might be compensated for by subtle, potentially self-enforcing labour market dynamics that generate opportunities for certain firms and industries. Empirically, the ideas are substantiated by means of a mediation model. The empirical analysis is based on latent class analysis and discrete choice models using data from an own survey of 200 food-processing firms in urban and rural locations of one German federal state. For these observations, our results support the idea that the exploitation of HRM opportunities may be more important for good performance in rural labour markets than the direct implementation of specific innovation modes. Investment in HRM allows rural firms in our sample to realise those gains in terms of innovation and growth offered by the creation of a stable and experienced workforce. Their focus on internal labour markets potentially generates external effects, which further encourages neighbouring firms to also invest in involved HRM measures.

Keywords: Agglomeration advantages; Innovation; Human resource management; Mediation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-07-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cse, nep-dcm and nep-sbm
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03736538v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in SN Business & Economics, 2022, 2 (8), pp.85. ⟨10.1007/s43546-022-00256-9⟩

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Journal Article: Endogenous rural dynamics: an analysis of labour markets, human resource practices and firm performance (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03736538

DOI: 10.1007/s43546-022-00256-9

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