Abstract
The combined study of the literature about human resource management and the resource-based view of the firm and organizational learning provides an analysis framework useful for understanding how strategic human resource management systems contribute to the creation and development of a sustained competitive advantage for the firm. This article has two major aims. First, it provides a conceptual framework linking simultaneously three theoretical blocks: (a) human resource management, (b) organizational learning and knowledge management, and (c) sustained competitive advantage. Second, the article builds a causal model and tests it with a sample of Spanish firms from the manufacturing industry using structural equation modeling (SEM). After the performance of a cluster analysis, a group of 72 learning firms is identified and used to test the model. Finally, major conclusions and implications for management are drawn and further avenues for research are suggested. (c) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.