This paper bridges behavioral theory of the firm arguments, the liability of smallness and the business groups literature to study the relationship between human resources slack and profitability. Specifically, the study proposes that both the negative and positive impacts of human resource slack are stronger for SMEs than for larger firms. Indeed, the risk-buffering capacity of slack is more important for smaller, more vulnerable firms, but at the same time, having slack reduces entrepreneurial risk-taking and increases internal rigidity. The study also proposes that business groups’ internal labor markets reduce both the benefits and limitations of holding human resources slack, leading to a weaker relation between human resources slack and profitability. The results, based on a large sample of French privately held firms, partly support our predictions. Overall, this paper extends our understanding of the importance of organizational structures in allocating and managing key strategic resources.

本文将公司论点的行为理论、小型责任和企业集团文献联系起来，以研究人力资源冗余与盈利能力之间的关系。具体而言，该研究表明，人力资源闲置的负面和正面影响对中小企业的影响要大于对大型企业的影响。事实上，冗余的风险缓冲能力对于规模较小、更脆弱的公司更为重要，但与此同时，冗余会降低企业家的冒险精神并增加内部刚性。该研究还提出，企业集团的内部劳动力市场减少了保持人力资源闲置的好处和局限性，导致人力资源闲置与盈利能力之间的关系较弱。结果基于法国私营公司的大量样本，部分支持我们的预测。总体而言，本文扩展了我们对组织结构在分配和管理关键战略资源方面的重要性的理解。