Specific Human Capital as a Source of Superior Team Performance

We empirically investigate the performance effect of team-specific human capital in highly interactive teams. Based on the tenets of the resource-based view of the firm and on the ideas of typical learning functions, we hypothesize that team members’ shared experience in working together have a positive effect on team performance, but at diminishing rates. When we hold constant a team’s stock of general human capital and other potential drivers, we find support for this prediction. We also discuss the implications concerning investment decisions into human capital as well as the transferability of our findings to other contexts.