The University of Tennessee-Knoxville, United States
The strategic sourcing of labor, a critical supply chain input, has largely been overlooked in the supply chain management literature. Insights from the human resources and organizational strategy literatures have emphasized the importance of better understanding labor sourcing strategies from a supply chain management perspective. We investigate the targeted sourcing of labor, termed pipeline recruiting, on the operational benefits for recruiting organizations. This research answers the call for further investigation of pipeline recruiting by analyzing the impact of concentrated labor sourcing practices on operational performance and other factors that may influence this relationship, such as the size of the source organization and physical distance between the source and recruiting firms. Through an econometric analysis of 125 Division 1 American Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football teams from 2007 to 2014, we find that sourcing concentration is positively predictive of organizational performance. In contrast to findings of non-human resource sourcing, smaller sources and larger physical distances, positively moderate this relationship. This study advances our understanding of strategic human capital, pipeline portfolios, and supply chain management by demonstrating the organizational performance implications of human capital acquisition and providing a basis for future talent sourcing research to build upon.
