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HRM scholars and practitioners argue that the competent workforce contributes to firm performance and industry competitiveness because of the knowledge and competencies possessed by them as a result of firm’s intellectual capital development (Sikora et al., 2016). This viewpoint gave rise to the growth of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM). In support of this argument, Fareed et al. (2016) claim that skilled and competent human resource helps organizations successfully compete in a business environment. According to the Resource-Based-View (RBV), quality human resource is central to developing robust human capital, leading to a sustained competitiveness of the firm (Barney, 1991). Marimuthu et al. (2009) highlight that successful organizations craft strategies that not only help them build their human resource capabilities but also support the achievement of business goals through improved productivity and efficiency. However, achieving this requires firms to capitalize on the employees, ensuring that they are equipped with the required skillset to undertake their roles efficiently.
In this regard, Jennex (2020) also expounds that an effective KM strategy serves two purposes. First, it aids in guiding the representation of the right knowledge contents in terms of its appropriate capture, storage and utilization. Second, it helps align knowledge management strategy with the firm’s competitive strategy. Although, both tangible and intangible assets are needed by the firms to demonstrate and successfully develop competitive strategies, however, today knowledge-based economies are focusing more on Intellectual Capital (IC) as critical for strategic management of organizational knowledge in order to survive in a complex business environment (Aryee et al., 2016; Crhová & Matošková, 2019). Moreover, IC when viewed from strategic HRM perspective, it focuses on re-aligning the intellectual knowledge assets of a firm in line with its core strategies. This makes the efficient management of knowledge resources indispensible for the firms if they ought to leverage these resources in deriving a sustained competitive advantage (Jennex 2020; Smith et al., 2010).
In view of the above, this research accordingly contributes to strategic HRM and IC literature by examining and addressing the central research question i.e. ‘How AMO bundles of HPWPs Guide Intellectual Capital Development In the Professional Service Firms?’. This is to say - how HPWPs impact the intellectual capital bottom-line in Professional Service Firms (PSFs)? Accordingly, this paper is structured as follow. Section-2 gives a substantial understanding of the literature review and is followed by Section-3 that highlights the research model along with associated hypotheses. Section-4 discusses research design detailing data collection methods, research participants and measurement scales. Section-5 entails data analyses and results. Finally, Section-6 sums up the paper by presenting overall discussions, highlighting implications and limitations followed by the conclusion.