The Effect of Strategic Orientation on Firm Performance: The Mediating Role Human Resource Practice

Strategic choice determines the approach to human resource management. Strategic human research management researchers have often suggested that individual human resource practices can be regarded as a set of commitment-base human resource (HR) practices, affecting business performance via a "black box." The purpose of this study is to establish a framework that provides a better understanding of how commitment-based HR practices affect market performance via service climate in the service industry. Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) has become synonymous with describing the functional relationship between business strategy and performance. Miles and Snow's (1978) strategic typologies including reactor, defender, analyzer and prospector, gained prominence over the past several decades as the standard barer of strategic choice and how strategy impacts human resource management practices. This research expands upon Miles and Snow's (1978) model of strategic typologies to include a broader view of contingent influences on strategic choice, and other key human resource management that are specific to firm performance.