Human Resources as Strategic Assets: An Evolutionary Resource‐based Theory*

The paper proposes an evolutionary approach to strategic human resources. This means that, first of all, truly valuable strategic assets are unlikely to result directly from senior management policies. Rather, what is truly valuable is the ‘social architecture’ that results from ongoing skill formation activities, forms of spontaneous co‐operation, the tacit knowledge that accumulates as the unplanned side‐effect of intentional corporate behaviour. Thus, corporate prosperity not seldom rests in the social architecture that has emerged slowly and incrementally over time, and may even predate the tenure of current senior management. Given the low visibility of such spontaneous co‐operation, it is even more likely to be resistant to easy imitation and therefore a valuable strategic asset.