HR and the Resource-Based View (RBV)
Competitive advantage doesn’t always come from tech or scale—it often comes from people. That’s the core insight behind the Resource-Based View.
The Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm is a foundational theory in strategic management—and one of the strongest justifications for treating HR as a strategic partner.
What Is the Resource-Based View?
The RBV argues that a firm’s sustainable competitive advantage comes from resources that are valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable (VRIN).
Under RBV, HR becomes essential because people capabilities often meet all four VRIN conditions:
- Valuable: Enable the organization to execute its strategy
- Rare: Not easily found in other firms
- Inimitable: Built through culture, learning, and time
- Non-substitutable: Cannot be replaced by other assets (e.g., tech alone)
People as Strategic Assets
From an RBV perspective, talent isn’t just a resource—it’s a strategic asset.
This includes:
- Expert knowledge
- Tacit skills
- Leadership capability
- Collaborative networks
- Organizational memory
These are hard to buy off the shelf. They’re built through smart HR design.
Implications for HR Strategy
To align with RBV, HR must:
- Focus on long-term talent development, not short-term fixes
- Create systems that reinforce learning, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration
- Build a culture that amplifies key capabilities
- Protect and grow internal know-how (vs outsourcing everything)
This also means HR metrics should track more than turnover or cost:
- Capability depth
- Internal mobility
- Leadership bench strength
- Innovation contribution
RBV in Practice
Companies can apply RBV to:
- Identify which people capabilities drive strategy
- Develop those capabilities through tailored HR programs
- Defend them from erosion or poaching
- Measure their contribution to outcomes
Conclusion
RBV shifts HR’s role from support to strategic enabler. It gives HR leaders a seat at the table—not as administrators, but as architects of advantage. The next chapter explores how to deepen that advantage through Human Capital thinking.