Abstract:    During the period of structural transformation, it′s crucial for enterprises′ sustainable development in China to achieve performance advantage. A growing number of researches have shown that an effective strategic human resource management (SHRM) system is an important organizational source to improve performance. Previous research attempts to understand SHRM from the configuration and contingency view. On the one hand, the configuration view states that the collaboration of different human resource practices leads to organizations′ competitive advantage, and organizations can achieve best fit through combining specific SHRM practices. Yet there is a more complicated and non-linear relationship between human resource practices architecture (e.g. training or employee engagement) and competitive advantage. Current studies on human resource management configurations either tend to consider SHRM as a single managerial practice, or as two polarized managerial practices (commitment vs control). This regards all strategic human resource management practices architecture as equally importance in the HRM system, without considering their uniqueness and heterogeneity. Given the constraints of resources, however, organizations can seldom pay equal attention on all human resource practices. To fill this research gap, scholars pointed out that the combination of the Ability-Motivation-Opportunity (AMO) model and SHRM is able to advance our understanding of the collaborative effect of multiple human resource practices. Nevertheless, extant research fails to use the AMO model to analyze the relative importance of SHRM practices, that is, it remains unclear when and what kind of human resource practices will play a core role in achieving competitive advantage within an organization. Therefore, the first purpose of this paper is to distinguish the relative importance of SHRM practices.
    On the other hand, from the contingency′s perspective, the contingent effect of SHRM originates from resource-based and dynamic capability paths, and they are independent of each other. The research based on the explanation of dynamic capability holds that only when the strategic human resource management reaches an agreement with the organizational ability can the final organizational efficiency and strategic efficiency be realized. While the research based on the explanation of resource-based holds that the essence of strategic human resource management is to provide a kind of strategic resource for the sustainable development of the organization, and whether the resource can be transformed into the capital element driving the organization to obtain competitive advantage. It is related to whether the enterprise has the aftereffect power of continuous competition. Some recent studies believe that the relationship between capabilities and resources is not "parallel" or "either or" relationship, but causality, that is, the strength of organizational capacity determines the effective application of organizational resources to a certain extent. Therefore, the second purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the dynamic capabilities of AMO strategic human resource management on performance and the resource-based path.
     In order to identify the influential mechanism between AMO strategic human resource management and organizational performance in different organizational development stages, we incorporated enterprise life cycle into our study, measured organizational outcomes with organizational performance, and conducted our research based on over 400 R&D enterprises with more than 25 personnel each. These enterprises are mainly located in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beijing, Jinan, Qingdao, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Zhoushan, and the industries of these enterprises ranged from new generation of electronic technology software development, electronic communications, new material, mechanical manufacturing to biological medicine. And we explored the multiple-mediating roles of human capital and learning ability in the relationship between AMO strategic human resource management and organizational performance in R&D enterprises using factor analysis and hierarchical regression methods. We found that AMO strategic human resource management affects organizational performance through the multiple-mediating role of ambidextrous learning ability and human capital in the start-up stage of science and technology innovation enterprises, while it only affects organizational performance through the mediating role of ambidextrous learning ability in development and maturity stage.
     This paper contributes to the literature in three aspects: First, previous studies have conceptualized strategic human resource management as a single management practice or a two-level management practice, while ignoring the relative importance of internal practices among different functions. Therefore, in response to the call of previous studies, the study combines AMO model with strategic human resource management, and explores the impact of strategic human resource management on organizational performance from three levels of capability, motivation and opportunity. This extends the research results of AMO strategic human resource management carried out by scholars recently, and provides ideas for future research on configuration view of strategic human resource management. Second, although previous studies have classified the impact path of strategic human resource management on organizational performance into dynamic capability and resource base, they believe that they are independent of each other. The results show that the relationship between ability and resource is not "parallel" or "either or" relationship, but causality. The dynamic ability path with learning ability has a positive impact on the resource-based path with human capital, that is, the strength of organizational capacity determines the effective application of organizational resources to a certain extent. This effectively integrates the dynamic capability and resource-based path, and expands from the fields of individual cognition and team internal interaction to the field of ability resource integration. Thirdly, the paper puts the relationship between AMO strategic human resource management and organizational performance in the context of enterprise life cycle, and puts forward the cycle evolution process of their influence paths. This not only provides support or/and challenges for the path relationship between strategic human resource management and organizational performance, but also promotes the development of strategic human resource management theory from the perspective of contingency.

Key words: strategic human resource management, ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO), ambidextrous learning capability, human capital, organizational performance