Ricardo flies Ryanair: Strategic human resource management and competitive advantage in a Single European Aviation Market

• Published date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12315
• Author: Geraint Harvey,Peter Turnbull
• Date: 01 November 2020

Received: 1 June 2018

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Revised: 10 July 2020

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Accepted: 14 July 2020

DOI: 10.1111/1748-8583.12315

SPECIAL ISSUE

Ricardo flies Ryanair: Strategic human resource

management and competitive advantage in a

Single European Aviation Market

Geraint Harvey

1

|Peter Turnbull

2

1

Centre for People and Organisation, School

of Management, Swansea University, Bay

Campus, Swansea, UK

2

School of Management, University of Bristol,

Bristol, UK

Correspondence

Peter Turnbull, School of Management,

University of Bristol, Howard House (3.10),

Queens Ave, Bristol BS8 1SN, UK.

Email: peter.turnbull@bristol.ac.uk

Funding information

European Transport Workers' Federation

and European Commission (DG Employment),

Grant/Award Number: VS/2011/0182

and VS/2013/0184

[Correction Statement: Correction added on

11 August 2020 after first online publication:

All the instances of “0‐h” changes to “zero

hours” and the word “and” had been removed

between the author name Paul Edwards

from acknowledgement section and the

copyright line for this article was changed

on October 24, 2020 after original online

publication in this version.]

Abstract

How and why are some firms, such as Ryanair, able to

consistently record industry‐leading profitability that

sustains a competitive advantage over their rivals? Human

resource management (HRM) plays a critical role in four

widely recognised profit‐generating mechanisms, albeit not

always in ways predicted by mainstream strategic HRM.

Studies of HRM →performance grounded in the resource‐

based view of the firm invariably focus on the human

resources already controlled by the firm—specifically, re-

sources that are rare, inimitable, non‐substitutable and can

be exploited through organisation—rather than strategic

factor markets where firms acquire their human resources.

In doing so, these studies overlook the industrial relations

and wider institutional context that might variously pro-

mote, permit or preclude particular HR policies and prac-

tices. It is only when different profit‐generating mechanisms,

either in isolation or combination, are activated under the

auspicious conditions of a particular time and place that

HRM contributes to sustained competitive advantage.

KEYWORDS

competitive advantage, economic rent, industrial relations, RBV,

strategic factor markets, strategic HRM

Abbreviations: CEO, Chief executive officer; EC, European Commission; ECA, European Cockpit Association; ECJ, European Court of Justice; ERCs,

Employee Representative Committees; ETF, European Transport Workers' Federation; EU, European Union; FG, focus group; LFAs, low‐fare airlines;

OECD, Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development; RBV, resource‐based view; RINO, rare, inimitable, non‐substitutable and

exploitable through organisation; RPG, Ryanair Pilots' Group; SEAM, Single European Aviation Market; SFMs, strategic factor markets.

Hum Resour Manag J. 2020;30:553–565. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrmj © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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