Marching Boots to Business Suits: Military Veteran Human Capital in Nonmilitary Organizations

Abstract: Firms increasingly leverage unique sources of human capital to remain competitive in dynamic, complex, and global markets. One source of often sought but underutilized human capital is that of military veterans. Veterans develop their human capital in extreme conditions, demonstrate their utility in complex, dynamic environments, and are a target labor pool for many organizations. Organizational research on military veterans in scarce, but the research that does exist shows that there are significant disconnects between the potential and realized value of veteran human capital. We employ abductive logic and draw on interdisciplinary scholarly research to provide a theoretical framework to better understand veterans in the civilian workforce.