Can We Reconcile the Internal Development of Specific Resources and Performance? The Case of Human Resources in Engineering
The cost of internal development for specific resources remains an hardly studied topic of the relation between resources and performances within organisations. The article focuses on the case of engineering human resources, which are a source of competitive advantage but subject to severe rationalisations. The study of two large companies, whom growth plans of engineering human resources have failed, sheds light on a systematic under-estimation of time and cost of new resources development, leading to an overload of experienced resources. This enlightenment pleads for a better integration in the resource-based view literature of the contingencies associated to specific resources.