The aim of this research work was to analyse the role of human resource management in the development of organizational capabilities and its influence on the firm's performance from a resource-based view. Our results, from empirical research on a nation-wide sample of Spanish savings banks, suggest that human resource decisions, integrated in a human resource system, have an important influence on the development of organizational capabilities and on the firm's performance.

The article initially addresses the concept of familiness and its connection with the succession process in the family firm to emphasize the relevance of the successor’s knowledge. Then, a model is presented that evolves from a dyadic relationship in the knowledge transfer process from predecessor to successor to a network of exchanges with multiple agents and sources that enhance the successor’s construction of knowledge through time. Key aspects derived from that model about the successor’s human capital, the predecessor’s role, the knowledge network, the relational context, and the time dimension of the process are then discussed.

Purpose: –The purpose of this paper is to study the external sources of knowledge that better exploit internal knowledge in order to innovate.Design/methodology/approach: –A balanced panel of 1,266 firms that respond to the Survey of Business Strategies for a five-year period was used, which represents a total of 6,330 observations.Findings: –The influence of the absorptive capacity on new products is significant, with an inverted U-shaped relationship. The interaction between external sources of knowledge and firm ' s absorptive capacity has a negative effect on innovation up to a certain level (substitution effect), after which that interaction improves the innovation of firms, displaying a complementary effect.Practical implications: –Firms with excess of internal sources of knowledge do not obtain better innovative results because overtime firms tend to inertia and need external sources of knowledge to obtain new knowledge. Firms must be conscious that the effect on innovation of using a strategy of external knowledge acquisition could be different depending on their internal knowledge base level. Thus, those firms that select their strategies to combine knowledge appropriately will have better results.Originality/value: –This paper reveals that the positive effect of internal sources of knowledge on innovation decline after it reaches a high level because those firms with strong absorptive capacity may enter a state of organizational inertia that reduces their innovation. This research enhances the importance of identifying each of the external knowledge sources likely to be used, since their influence on innovation differs depending on the level of internal knowledge. Finally, this study is based on panel data models, which allows us to control unobservable heterogeneity improving earlier studies that had to rely on cross-sectional data.

This paper demonstrates the strategic importance of developing a capability to manage human resources based on a set of social responsibility principles (normative and structural) with the aim of responding to the interests of the employees. Such corporate social responsiveness will encourage employees’ collaboration and could distinguish the company from other organizations. We have tried empirically to test the existence of a significant and positive relationship between organizational results and the institutionalization of a social responsiveness toward employees. To this end, we carried out a study in the Spanish savings bank sector to analyse the strategic value of corporate responsiveness toward employees from the resource-based view. Our results seem to show that those savings banks that have institutionalized high-commitment practices toward employees have greater profitability.