Toward a More Comprehensive Model of Firms’ Human Capital Rents

Strategic human capital research has recently expanded to encompass other types of labor market frictions in addition to those posed by firm-specific human capital. Labor market frictions inhibit trade in human capital, allowing firms that are idiosyncratically advantaged with respect to a particular friction to appropriate human capital rents. Adding to this nascent conversation, I describe how idiosyncratic firm resources and capabilities enable firms to garner human capital rents. By explicitly distinguishing between value creation and value capture, which together drive firm-level human capital rents, this article’s theoretical framework uncovers overlooked circumstances where firms’ pursuit of human capital rents differ in important ways. I discuss theoretic propositions and implications to guide future research.