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Understanding the emergence of firm-level human capital resources from individual-level human capital is crucial to explaining how firms can create and sustain competitive advantage from their people. We theorize that higher similarity among the individual-level components of a firm's founding human capital resource leads to higher subsequent average overlap between individuals and the established firm-level human capital resource, and that this higher overlap improves firm performance. Analysis of individual- and firm-level human capital portfolios constructed using data from 872 real estate brokerages suggests that higher individual-level human capital similarity among agents at founding positively relates to individual-firm human capital overlap in future years, and that higher individual-firm human capital overlap positively relates to future firm sales. These results imply that managers from founding onward must carefully craft and manage individual- and firm-level human capital resources to generate persistent performance advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate how the degree of alignment between individual and firm-level human capital resources influences performance. We argue that a high degree of alignment between firm and individual-level human capital profiles increases human capital utilization, coordination, and human capital transfer. This consequently improves performance, and the benefits increase with firm size. For nascent firms, this alignment is created through similarity of individual-level human capital profiles. Drawing on Utah residential real estate data from 1996-2014 and using novel measures to dynamically capture individual- and firm-level human capital profiles, we find that brokerages with higher brokerage-agent human capital alignment represent more home sellers and buyers than brokerages with lower alignment. These benefits increase with firm size. We also find that agent-agent human capital similarity in the first year significantly influences brokerage-agent human capital alignment (and consequently performance) in subsequent years. These results suggest that managers from founding onward must carefully craft and manage firm-level human capital resources to ensure high levels of alignment and utilization. Firms that better manage their general human capital may enjoy persistent performance advantages that are resistant to turnover and difficult for competitors to replicate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how social affiliations between real estate listing agents and home sellers impact the types of transactions agents engage in, and their subsequent career outcomes, including decisions to found a new firm. While many studies have argued that factors such reputation act as entry barriers and create advantages for high reputation firms, it remains unclear how social affiliations impact access to valuable transactions and the building of reputation when information is incomplete. Using a unique approach that pairs data from the Utah Multiple Listing Services with data on LDS church congregation boundaries in Utah County, Utah for 1998-2014, we explore how social affiliations between home sellers and agents through geographically-assigned Mormon church congregations influence the type of transactions agents engage in and future career outcomes. We find that affiliations allow agents to list more expensive, larger, and higher quality homes compared to listing for non-affiliates, and to list such homes at low levels of experience. We also find that affiliations create a distinct feedback loop where listing for affiliates allows agents to gain valuable experience and build reputation, which positively impacts future transactions. Finally, we find that while these benefits aid agents competitively, they also lead to lower rates of entrepreneurship. Taken together, these results imply that social affiliations can lead to important competition benefits for professionals, although at the expense of entrepreneurial activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper bridges multiple levels to investigate how human capital resources at the firm level are influenced and created by human capital at the individual level. Using a novel approach that draws on longitudinal data from the Utah real estate industry, we test the impact of two dimensions of human capital--specialization and overlap--on the value of human capital to individuals and firms. We uncover a paradox of human capital, wherein firms improve performance by employing specialized agents and by constructing profiles with significant human capital overlap, but agents prefer to be generalists or unique specialists. This tension, and the fact that employees can readily depart, highlight the difficulty in creating sustainable advantages from human capital resources. Firm implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]