A humanistic perspective of firm competitive behavior

Embedded within firms are unique stores of intangible human assets that likely influence the way firms compete. We argue that human and social capital of a firm, particularly at the upper echelon level, contributes to the firm’s awareness of the competitive environment and its motivation and ability to undertake numerous, complex, and strategic competitive actions, and therefore improve its competitive intensity. By examining how human capital and intra firm social capital influence firm competitive intensity, we advance a humanistic perspective of firm competitive behavior and outline several implications for future research.