Strategic human resource management and resource value attributes for sustainable manufacturing performance

Abstract

Human capital is increasingly recognized as a strategic driver of sustainable industrial performance, yet empirical evidence on how valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable (VRIN) human-resource attributes translate into competitive advantage and sustainable performance in developing economies remains sparse. Grounded in strategic HRM practices as the theoretical premise for why VRIN-consistent resources are expected to emerge, the study empirically examines the direct effects of VRIN resource attributes on competitive advantage and its downstream effect on sustainable performance in the Bangladesh manufacturing sector, which is directly relevant to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure). A quantitative survey collected data from 274 h managers and senior HR professionals in manufacturing companies in Dhaka and Gazipur districts. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was performed using SmartPLS to analyze the data. The results indicate that the most important positive contributors to competitive advantage are valuable, non-substitutable, and inimitable resources, respectively (β = 0.499, β = 0.169, and β = 0.121). Sustainable performance is positively correlated with competitive advantage (β = 0.224). β. The hypothesized moderating role of rare resources in the competitive advantage–sustainable performance relationship (β = − 0.384) was not supported once evaluated against its 95% bootstrap confidence interval, and even its point estimate carried a negligible effect size (f 2 = 0.002); this exploratory pattern is discussed only as a direction for future research, not as a resource-rigidity finding. It is one of the first PLS-SEM studies to integrate all four VRIN dimensions in a single model of Bangladesh’s manufacturing industry—valuable, inimitable, and non-substitutable resources as direct antecedents of competitive advantage, and rarity as a boundary condition on the advantage-performance link.