Gold Cup: human resources as sources of competitive advantage and superior performance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to evaluate the association between human resources and qualification for the 2017 Gold Cup, and second, to examine if human resources could predict qualification for the 2017 Gold Cup. Design/methodology/approach Guided by four competitive advantage (CA) theories related to the human resources, the study utilized archival data of 35 male Gold Cup national football teams. The dependent variable was qualifications for 2017 Gold Cup and the independent variables were football-specific human capital measured by ranked number of football amateurs, professionals and officials. Statistical analysis was performed using Kendell τ statistic and binary logistic regression (BLR). Findings Qualification for the Gold Cup tournament and all human resources were positively and statistically associated (officials (0.493, p <0.01), amateurs (0.464, p <0.01) and professionals (0.624, p <0.01)), and BLR model (Negelkerke R 2 ) explained 55.8 percent of the variance of human resources. Research limitations/implications The research focused exclusively on football-specific human capital and not alternative sources of CA such as economy power, political stability and/or national football popularity amongst others. Practical implications Human resources are a valuable source of CA which requires long-term strategy geared toward training, development and promotion of talent. Superior football team performance is directly proportional to talented players. Originality/value The study was unique in two ways. First, it made clear the positive significance of human resources as a source of CA. Second, it highlighted the distinction between professional and amateur footballers – a factor uncommon in similar studies.