专业英语课程论文 题 目: Human resource management and competitive advantage: An application of resource-based view in the shipping industry 姓 名： 学 院 经济管理学院 专 业：人力资源管理 教 师：孙 学 号：20091332034 2012年5月 25 日CatalogueAbstract .3Introduction .4Body.41. Resource-based view and strategic human resource management .42. Application of resource-based view in shipping and crew management.63. Results from the field survey.84. Managing humanresources in shipping: an integrated framework.10Conclusion11Reference.12Acknowledgements.13Human resource management and competitive advantage: An application of resource-based view in the shipping industryHaixiao Yu(俞海啸)20091332034，May 2012 Nanjing University of Information Science and technology, School of Economics and Management, Department of Human Resource Management, Completed 24 May 2012. AbstractThe resource-based view (RBV) of the firm has been established as one of the main approaches to strategy formulation for the development of sustainable competitive advantage. Moreover, humanresource management can be conceptualised as a source of competitiveness. This paper proposes that RBV could contribute to the confrontation of the hindrances that shipping companies face in the management of their human resources, and to the formation of sustainable competitive advantage. The paper analyses the findings of a field study, regarding the different humanresource and crew managementpractices that are applied by Greek-owned shipping companies. Finally, based on the RBV of the firm, it proposes an integrated framework for managing humanresources in the shipping industry in a way that could lead to the formation of sustainable competitive advantage.KeywordsCompetitive advantage; Human resources ; Resource based view; Shipping1. IntroductionOne of the basic goals for companies operating in the shipping industry has always been the ability to produce low-cost services. The highly competitive business environment of this industry, along with the international regulations and other institutional arrangements, keeps affecting till today the companies strategies to operational cost reduction. Considering the fact that manning expenses represent almost 50% of the operational, and that it is presumed as the most flexible , one could understand why shipping companies seek to employ low-cost seamen. Especially nowadays that the global maritime labour market offers a variety of officers and ratings, the quest for cheap labour seems to be easyin terms of quantity, but also riskyin terms of quality. While this variety should be considered as strength seeing from ahumanresourcemanagement (HRM) view, in many cases in practice, it is treated more as a hindrance. Factors that contribute to it, apart from the companies strategic approach with respect to theirhumanresources (HR), are various structural characteristics of the shipping sector, which will be discussed later on.This paper proposes that the resource-based view (RBV) could contribute to the confrontation of several hindrances that shipping companies face in the management of their HR, and to the formation of sustainablecompetitive advantage. The paper analyses the findings of a field study, and compares the different approaches that shipping companies apply with regard to the management of their personnel. The contribution of RBV and HRM in the achievement of competitive advantage are introduced in Section 2, where references to shipping companies HR are also made. The structural characteristics of the shipping industry and maritime labour market, are further examined in Section 3. Section 4 presents the methodology, discusses the results and gives the basic outcomes of the field survey. Section 5 proposes an integrated framework for managing HR in the shipping industry, in a way that could lead to the formation of sustainablecompetitive advantage. 2. Resource-based view and strategic human resource managementResource-based view (RBV), initially introduced by Wernerfelt , realises the firm as a bundle of resourcesand capabilities that combined develop competencies. Resources and capabilities constitute the base for the formation of sustainable competitive advantage. Resources can be classified : physical capitalresources (including plants, equipment, finance), organisational capital resources (e.g. organisational structure, control systems, HR systems) and human capital resources (skills, judgment and intelligence of employees). Capabilities can be defined as the skills a firm needs to take full advantage of its assets. Without such