Humankapitalet som konkurrensfördel

Sammanfattning: Title: Human capital as a competitive advantage Seminar date: 2016-06-02 Course: FEKH19, Business Administration: Bachelor Degree Project in Strategic Management Undergraduate Level, 15 credits Authors: Erik Ax, Frans Johansson, Johan Jonsson Advisor: Merle Jacob Key words: Resource-based view, Human resource management, Talent management, Generation-Y, Accounting and audit industry. Purpose: The purpose of this report is to seek insight into how small and medium sized companies in human capital-intensive industries attract and retain its human capital, in order to achieve their long-term goals. Furthermore, we have also sought to create an understanding of how suited these companies are towards the new generation, Generation-Y, which now enters the labor market. Methodology: The study was conducted using a qualitative approach. We conducted a total of eight semi-structured interviews in eight accounting and audit small and medium sized firms. We employed pattern matching to analyse the data and used the themes identified to analyse our research question. Theoretical perspectives: The main theoretical perspective used to analyse the research question is the Resource-based view (RBV). RBV suggests that organizations may be conceptualized as baskets of resources. RBV further contends that human capital is one of the few resources that organisations have the capacity to develop and distinguish themselves from their competitors (Barney, 1991). Reasoning from this, our study treats people and incentives i.e. human capital as a resource. We complement RBV with two additional perspectives from Human Resource Management: Talent Management and Employer Branding. Empirical foundation: Competent human capital characterizes the accounting and audit industry. FAR’s prediction of industry shifts in the combination with the new generation, Generation-Y, entering the labor market caught our interest for the industry. Our sampling consisted of small and medium sized firms within the audit and accounting industry, since previous studies mostly focused on the large companies within the industry. Conclusions: The majority of companies prefer to recruit through their networks or from polytechnics. In order to retain their employees, the companies often point toward getting employees to thrive, giving them development opportunities and a competitive salary. Generation-Y’s entry into the labor market does not seem to be a problem for the companies in our study, since all already meet the requirements that Generation-Y have in the workplace. Few isolation mechanisms in the industry create problems concerning the sustainable competitive advantages.