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Many networks take a small-world structure, with a high degree of clustering and shortcut ties that reduce the path-length between the clusters. It can be argued that small-world networks have benefits that are simultaneously related to network closures and the spanning of structural holes, but research on the network members’ performance is nonetheless inconclusive. The purpose of this paper is to argue that the concept of resource idiosyncrasy can explain the mixed findings. Firm idiosyncratic resources are not easily generalizable across enterprises.

Industries may vary in terms of resource idiosyncrasy, and the paper elaborates how this can moderate shortcut ties’ effect on performance in an inter-firm network.

If resource idiosyncrasy predominates in an industry, the paper proposes that inter-firm shortcut ties may increase performance, whereas shortcut ties may decrease performance if non-idiosyncratic resources predominate.

Applying the concept of resource idiosyncrasy as a moderating variable, the paper aims to explain shortcut ties’ effect on performance in an inter-firm network. The theory advanced here can have practical implications and also motivate future empirical studies to gain further knowledge about small-world networks’ effect on performance.

To explain the origin of novel strategies I elaborate the managerial judgment perspective as an alternative to the serendipity and managerial foresight views on the origin of novel strategies proposed in the earlier literature. The managerial judgment perspective closely integrates resource-based theories and theories of managerial cognition. It builds centrally on the construct of “management’s theory of success” as a representation of managers’ beliefs and expectations concerning the factors that lead to desired outcomes in the light of Knightean uncertainty and that is formed through learning from small samples over time. The managerial judgment perspective may be seen as a theory that explains the formation of strategies independently from their eventual performance, but may also shed light on the cognitive antecedents of superior performance. It also argues for a conception of strategic agency in terms of ecological rationality.

The elements of a conceptual and organizational model for conducting systematic selection of electronic publications are presented. Refined at Mann Library over the past decade, the model is designed to develop staff expertise in selection of information resources across formats, and to ensure that the full impact of selections on every part of the library organization is anticipated at the time of selection. Described are the concept of information genres, the role of genre specialists, and a selection review board, the Electronic Resources Council, which is made up of representatives from throughout the library organization. The model is presented as a method of mainstreaming, or operationally and conceptually integrating, electronic publications into the library's resources and services.

The purpose of this paper is to reconfigure a new component of dynamic capabilities across firms, and to summarize propositions and to construct a conceptual framework of the dynamic capabilities in fashion apparel industry.

The author used the interviews with the industry experts and trade association executives to develop an understanding of the strategic and technological issues facing the industry and to gain a historical perspective on the evolution of the industry.

This study explored the establishment of dynamic capability and market competitiveness in the fashion apparel industry from the perspectives of dynamic capability and resources embedment, and brought out the insight that commonalities/component has been overlooked. The “conceptual framework of dynamic capabilities in fashion apparel industry” developed by this study, which consists of the major key factors for the maintenance of fast fashion apparel industry in market competitive advantage.

Although the five top fashion apparel groups interviewed in this study are representative, there are limits in classification of other brands, which is one of the limitations in this study. Second, although qualitative research can achieve understanding of the utmost layer of situations, its greatest limitation is that it cannot investigate massive amount of interviewees, which is a second limitation in this study.

The theoretical contribution of the study is to construct a conceptual framework of dynamic capabilities in the fashion apparel industry using eight theoretical propositions. Such conceptual framework will become a basic knowledge system for firms in the fashion apparel industry to develop strategic directions, as well as an important knowledge reference to other firms when choosing what to establish as their core competences.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the “resource curse” problem as a counter-example of creative performance and innovation by examining reliance on capital and physical resources, showing the gap between expectations and ex-post actual performance that became clearer under conditions of economic turmoil.

The analysis uses logistic regressions with dichotomous response and predictor variables on structured tables of count data, representing firm performance as an outcome of capital resources, physical resources and innovation where appropriate.

Key findings relevant to economic and business practice follow. First, a typical characteristic of successful Vietnamese firms in the transition period is their reliance on either capital resources or physical asset endowments. Second, poor performers exhibit evidence of over-reliance on both capital and physical assets. Third, firms that relied on both types of resources tended to downplay creative performance. Some evidence suggests that firms face more acute problem caused by the law of diminishing returns in troubled times. Fourth, the “innovation factor” has not been tapped as a source of economic growth.

This study has some limitations. The size of the survey sample is approximately 150 firms, while the potential sample of > 300 should be possible in the future. When the size increases, the research could be expanded to include further variables that will help investigate more deeply into the related issues and business implications. With regard to the implications of the study, the absence of innovations has made the notion of “resource curse” identical to “destructive creation” implemented by ex-ante resource-rich firms, and worsened the problem of resource misallocation in transition turmoil. The Vietnamese corporate sector's addiction to resources may contribute to economic deterioration, through a downward spiral of lower efficiency leading to consumption of more resources.

Insights obtained from this study could save transition economies' resources which have almost always been considered sine qua non before any critical major policymaking, while this is not necessarily true, and in many cases, even counterproductive.

Original data set on Vietnam stock market are collected, processed, prepared and used by the authors. Original design by the authors for regression equations with dichotomous predictor variables: dependence on endowed physical assets, reliance on capital resources and significant signs of creative performance/innovations. Original idea of viewing “resource curse” as absence of innovation and due to uncreative “destructive creation” of poor-performing commercial operations by resource-rich firms is used in the paper. We have searched the literature in business research and found that the empirical results have not been previously reported.

This conceptual paper uses the resource-based theory (RBT) of the firm to argue that for competitors to improve their innovation through a cooperative relationship – coopetitive relationship – they need to work on building a stable relationship with each other by investing a special type of resources, namely locked-in resources.

The authors draw on RBT criteria to argue that when the antecedent – the locked-in resources – and the mediator – the relationship stability – are valuable, rare, inimitable and organized (VRIO), they will help the parties involved achieve sustained competitive advantage from the coopetitive relationship.

This paper argues that locked-in resources lead to higher coopetitive relationship stability by reducing the impact of opportunistic behavior from any of the partners. More stable relationship leads to more innovations especially radical innovations. In addition, the nature of the industry plays a moderating role. The industry's competitive intensity affects the relationship between locked-in resources and relationship stability. The industry's age affects the relationship between stability and innovation quantity and type.

This conceptual paper anchors its arguments within the RBT related to the firm's strategic resources (VRIO) characteristics and applies the same arguments (VRIO) beyond the firm level to the coopetitive relationship level. The model invites researchers and practitioners to consider two new constructs namely locked-in resources and coopetitive relationship stability in order to build successful coopetitive relationships.

This paper contributes considerably and in a practical manner to managers as it draws their attention to the importance of investing a special type of resources, namely locked-in resources and ensuring the relationship stability with their coopetitors to achieve the desired outcome. It also draws the managers' attention to the impact industry's competitive intensity and industry's age have on the quality of the relationship and on the innovation outcomes.

A distinct contribution of this conceptual paper is the introduction of two new constructs: locked-in resources and coopetitive relationship stability. Locked-in resources are valuable within the coopetitive relationship and they improve the second construct or relationship stability. Relationship stability is different from relationship strength as it leads to more trust between partners over longer periods of time.

This paper aims to offer exploratory remarks by discussing whether blockchain can help organizations attain sustained competitive advantage in view of its increased applications and untapped potential. Organizations are yet to test its utilization as an intangible strategic resource at a time when organizational strategic landscapes – rapidly changing in a globally networked digitally empowered world – require them to enhance capability of combining resources for meeting stakeholders’ expectations.

Blockchain as an emerging technology draws frequent industry announcements and specialists’ posts on daily basis in media, and there exist inadequacies with respect to the availability of relevant studies in the extant literature on the subject of blockchain, which itself is in infancy. Keeping in view the limitations associated with the traditional understandings of scholarship underscoring, thereby that research and knowledge discovery have been restricting the progress across disciplines on account of which knowledge domains fail to make a meaningful effect; research design of the paper comprises the scholarship of integration method, which might appear to be less systematic but was more emergent in comparison to a traditional methodology of systematic literature review, and suitable for conducting this study.

Findings of this study suggest that blockchain with huge popularity as a technological innovation has huge potentialities and promises to be a strategic intangible resource for organizations helpful in attaining sustained advantage. However, the findings also suggest several cautionary remarks.

This paper offers exploratory remarks by discussing blockchain in the context of its consideration as a significant intangible strategic resource helpful in attaining sustained competitive advantage, emphasizing the need for continuous attention and revision with its increased applications. It attempts to assess the untapped potential of blockchain incorporating ample scholarly value in this era of fourth industrial revolution. The findings offer greater significance for different stakeholders including researchers and policymakers. However, this paper limits itself by throwing light on the strategic aspects only while attempting to touch upon only those aspects of blockchain that were perceived to be helpful in understanding it as a resource of sustained competitive advantage.

This paper presents originality and value by offering exploratory remarks that can be immensely useful given the scarcity of literature on the novel blockchain with respect to its consideration as a strategic resource. This paper attempts to provide much needed underpinnings to the notion whether blockchain can help organizations attain and sustain competitive advantage.

The paper aims to understand which location determinants are relevant in a subsidiary location decision under the interaction influence of an emerging‐market firm's (EMF) resource and internationalization motives.

The paper prepares a typology of an EMF's resources which are different from those of a developed‐country firm. It proceeds to argue which internationalization motives are likely to work for an EMF endowed with a specific resource. Finally, the paper posits the impact of resource and internationalization motives on the relevance of some location determinants over others in an EMF's location decision matrix.

The conceptual framework proposes a relationship between EMF resources, internationalization motives and location determinants and prioritizes some location determinant(s) over others for various combinations of EMF resource and internationalization motives.

The paper contributes to the literature by proposing a unique typology of EMF resources. The overall framework informs the scholars about the importance of idiosyncratic resources as the basis of differential location decisions.

This article presents a guiding framework for multinational managers to assess optimum location decisions on the basis of idiosyncratic firm resources and internationalization motives.

The paper fills a scholarly gap by proposing a framework that relates firm resources and internationalization motives to location determinants. In the process, the paper also proposes a resource typology for resources unique to EMFs.

Although health-care features prominently in transformative service research, there is little to guide service providers on how to improve well-being and social change transformations. This paper aims to explore actor-level interactions in transformative services, proposing that actors’ complementary health service literacy roles are fundamental to resource integration and joint value creation.

In-depth interviews with 46 primary health-care patients and 11 health-care service providers (HSPs) were conducted focusing on their subjective experiences of health literacy. An iterative hermeneutic approach was used to analyse the textual data linking it with existing theory.

Data analysis identified patients’ and HSPs’ health service literacy roles and corresponding role readiness dimensions. Four propositions are developed describing how these roles influence resource integration processes. Complementary service literacy roles enhance resource integration with outcomes of respect, trust, empowerment and loyalty. Competing service literacy roles lead to outcomes of discredit, frustration, resistance and exit through unsuccessful resource integration.

Health service literacy roles – linked to actor agency, institutional norms and service processes – provide a nuanced approach to understanding the tensions between patient empowerment trends and service professionals’ desire for recognition of their expertise over patient care. Specifically, the authors extend Frow et al.’s (2016) list of co-creation practices with practices that complement actors’ service literacy and role readiness. Based on a service perspective, the authors encourage transformative service researchers, service professionals and health service system designers, to recognize complementary health service literacy roles as an opportunity to support patients’ resources and facilitate value co-creation.

The purpose of this study is to critically evaluate the canonical contribution of the classical theories of multinational enterprises (MNE) and complement them with congruous multi-theoretical lenses to a propose a meta-theoretical view for competitive advantage. The proposed framework is applied to fundamental questions of MNE, and exploratory insights are revealed.

This study sought to review the literature on various paradigms such as resource-based view, knowledge-based view, attention-based view, relational view, dynamic capability view and institution-based view to propose a meta-theoretical approach explicating the phenomenon of competitiveness.

This study proffers that the key to global competitiveness lies in building micro-foundational, multidimensional and multilevel multinational orchestration capabilities. The requisite orchestration capabilities are capabilities par excellence that explain: how organizational capabilities originate through the cognition of individual employees at the micro level; how individual-level abilities are amplified when they are harnessed through relational capabilities to form knowledge capabilities at the meso-level; and how the confluence of knowledge capabilities and higher order dynamic capabilities gives rise to heterogeneous firm-level knowledge-based dynamic capabilities that can be combined with institution capabilities to aggrandize the prediction of competitive advantage for MNEs.

The successful development of MNE competitiveness as a field of academic inquiry, brought about by an increasing amount of theoretical specialization, has come at the price of significant fragmentation of the overall scientific quest. The abovementioned paradigms and their underlying constructs have primarily been conceptualized in silos. The classical theories of MNE have been used a starting point to which complementary multidisciplinary views have been scaffolded to gain a more nuanced understanding of global competitiveness.