Firm-Specific, Industry-Specific, and Occupational Human Capital and the Sourcing of Knowledge Work

Kyle J. Mayer (), Deepak Somaya () and Ian O. Williamson ()
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Kyle J. Mayer: Department of Management and Organization, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089
Deepak Somaya: College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Champaign, Illinois 61820
Ian O. Williamson: Melbourne Business School, Melbourne, Victoria 3053, Australia

Organization Science, 2012, vol. 23, issue 5, 1311-1329

Abstract: Whereas capability differences are known to impact governance decisions, what drives heterogeneity in firm capabilities? We propose that capability differences may arise from governance choices related to the focal activity and study how firms accumulate capabilities in the firm-specific, industry-specific, and occupational human capital necessary to perform knowledge work. We theorize that prior outsourcing decisions influence the development of firm- and industry-specific human capital and that buyer–supplier differences in the management of skilled employees can produce systematic differences in capabilities based on occupational human capital. Additionally, we explore some contingencies in the development of these types of human capital and their impacts on outsourcing knowledge work. These propositions are tested with a unique data set on the outsourcing of legal work involved in filing patents (i.e., patent prosecution).

Keywords: human capital; organizational capabilities; knowledge-based view; outsourcing; knowledge work; resource-based view; transaction cost economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (40)

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