Search results

The purpose of this paper is to answer the question: how to extend resource-based theory to take into account the contribution of all kinds of resources (including the less regarded ones) to performance? While recognising the importance of strategic resources in building and sustaining a competitive advantage, the authors contend that a symmetric analysis of more available resources can shed new light on the sources and mechanisms of superior performance. Thus, they aim to contribute to an extended theory of resources.

Based on literature review and theorization process, the authors introduce alongside strategic resources, the concepts of “ordinary resources” and “junk resources”, showing how they may contribute to performance with an appropriate business model. Several illustrative cases are discussed to demonstrate that such resources need to be studied by resource-based theory (RBT).

The authors propose shifting the focus of RBT from the study of strategic resources alone in order to consider other types as well: ordinary and junk resources. Such an approach involves significant implications for strategic management theory and management practices.

The paper describes the conditions under which ordinary and junk resources (more available to most firms than strategic resources) may generate a competitive advantage. The extended resource-based theory can have implications for society as it may influence managers ' and public attitudes towards underestimated resources and lead to new business models.

The approach developed in this article also goes beyond traditional critiques of RBT. Specifically, the authors ' analysis avoids tautological reasoning, distinguishing between: resources; perceptions of their attributes by firms; the services these resources render; the business model implemented to deploy these resources; and the effects in terms of performance. The authors build an extended resource-based theory, allowing the contribution of various kinds of resources to firm performance to be explained.

Despite calls for more theoretical and strategically oriented work in logistics, the resource‐based theory of the firm (RBT), and the related capabilities approach ‐ which represent a dominant stream of research in strategic management over the last decade ‐ have not been prominent in the logistics literature. Provides a critical review of the large literature on the RBT and suggests areas where it can be applied to strategically‐oriented logistics research. Describes the resource‐based theory of the firm, its major assumptions, and its implications for strategic actions. Also discusses other areas of research where the RBT have been applied. Illustrates how the RBT represents the underlying theoretical support for one of the central propositions of strategic logistics: that a distinctive logistics capability is a source of sustainable competitive advantage and superior performance. Suggests that strategic logistics research may benefit from combining the RBT with organizational learning theory and evolutionary approaches to competition.

This paper aims to review the rise of the resource-based theory (RBT) in light of the perennial tension between rationalism and behaviorism. The authors appraise the RBT’s strengths and its potential fault-line, the erodibility of resources.

A nontraditional melding of the review and conceptual development methodological modes sheds light on the limitations and future prospects of the three main strands within the RBT, with a special emphasis on its rapidly developing dynamic capabilities (DC) strand.

The paper proposes a framework for modeling the transformation of resources into usable highly specific assets.

The ascent of the DC strand will itself have to be revisited some day.

The findings imply that the decline of resources should not be left to chance, but be regulated according to one’s strategic intent.

Driven by a constructive perspective aimed at integrating theoretical coherence with practical relevance, a nontraditional synoptic tour situates the contribution of the RBT with respect to earlier approaches, in particular the evolving notion of fit.

The paper seeks to analyze the evolution of competitive advantage using both “classic” and “extended” resource‐based theory (RBT). The aim is to examine the different ways in which “classic” and “extended” resource‐based advantage develops and how they might combine to create long‐term advantage.

A single case study method is used to examine the process by which competitive advantage has accumulated over a 50‐year period at Food Services Group Inc., a highly successful food service company based on the West Coast of the USA with an annual growth rate currently running at 10 percent.

Preliminary conclusions suggest support for the sequential, iterative, and slow‐cycle development model associated with proprietary bounded resources and, the strategic resource‐rigidity paradox. The work also highlights preliminary evidence for a faster cycle development process possible with inter‐firm resources associated with extended resource‐based theory (ERBT) and, long‐run sustainable advantage requiring synchronization and integration of both bounded and relational resources.

This is the first rich empirical study of the way competitive advantage evolves using both RBT and ERBT. The research provides insights into how organizations can combine both classic and extended resources in seeking to establish competitive advantage. It illustrates how unbounded external resources, such as the role of suppliers engaged in new product development, can create an initial advantage for firms who then build on this by investing in bounded resources such as specific skills within their organization.

The strategic management literature emphasizes the concept of business intelligence (BI) as an essential competitive tool. Yet the sustainability of the firms’ competitive advantage provided by BI capability is not well researched. To fill this gap, this study attempts to develop a model for successful BI deployment and empirically examines the association between BI deployment and sustainable competitive advantage. Taking the telecommunications industry in Malaysia as a case example, the research particularly focuses on the influencing perceptions held by telecommunications decision makers and executives on factors that impact successful BI deployment. The research further investigates the relationship between successful BI deployment and sustainable competitive advantage of the telecommunications organizations. Another important aim of this study is to determine the effect of moderating factors such as organization culture, business strategy, and use of BI tools on BI deployment and the sustainability of firm’s competitive advantage.

This research uses combination of resource-based theory and diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory to examine BI success and its relationship with firm’s sustainability. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and a two-phase sequential mixed method consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches are employed. A tentative research model is developed first based on extensive literature review. The chapter presents a qualitative field study to fine tune the initial research model. Findings from the qualitative method are also used to develop measures and instruments for the next phase of quantitative method. The study includes a survey study with sample of business analysts and decision makers in telecommunications firms and is analyzed by partial least square-based structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal that some internal resources of the organizations such as BI governance and the perceptions of BI’s characteristics influence the successful deployment of BI. Organizations that practice good BI governance with strong moral and financial support from upper management have an opportunity to realize the dream of having successful BI initiatives in place. The scope of BI governance includes providing sufficient support and commitment in BI funding and implementation, laying out proper BI infrastructure and staffing and establishing a corporate-wide policy and procedures regarding BI. The perceptions about the characteristics of BI such as its relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, and observability are also significant in ensuring BI success. The most important results of this study indicated that with BI successfully deployed, executives would use the knowledge provided for their necessary actions in sustaining the organizations’ competitive advantage in terms of economics, social, and environmental issues.

This study contributes significantly to the existing literature that will assist future BI researchers especially in achieving sustainable competitive advantage. In particular, the model will help practitioners to consider the resources that they are likely to consider when deploying BI. Finally, the applications of this study can be extended through further adaptation in other industries and various geographic contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the determinants, transactional alignment and performance outcomes of franchise contract length using transaction costs theory (TCT) and resource-based theory (RBT).

The author hypothesizes that franchisors choose contract length according to TCT and RBT arguments. TCT explains the safeguarding function of contracts: the franchisors will offer longer contracts when franchisees’ specific investments are high and environmental uncertainty is low. RBT highlights the knowledge leverage function of contracts: the franchisors will offer longer contracts when the brand name and intangible knowledge assets are high. Franchise companies that design contract length aligned with transactional attributes will perform better. The author tests the misalignment hypothesis and comparative performance of franchise contracts by estimating two-stage least squares regression and Heckman two-stage procedure that control for endogeneity and self-selection.

Empirical data from the German franchise sector support the hypotheses. In addition to the safeguarding function, franchise contracts have an important knowledge leverage function. Longer contracts perform better due to the development of relational strategic assets and stronger commitment.

Franchisors must offer longer contracts when specific investments of franchisees, brand name, intangible knowledge assets are high, and environmental uncertainty is low. Franchisors should invest in the development of relational strategic assets and offer longer contracts for the benefit of superior performance.

The study addresses the significant question of transactional alignment and comparative performance of franchise contracts. It empirically confirms the importance of RBT in explaining contractual choices and performance.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a growing body of research on the applicability of resource-based theory (RBT) to the information systems (IS) area. In particular, the paper provides an understanding of the IS value creation process, and strategies for managing it by demonstrating the application of cross-impact analysis.

RBT and systems theory are adopted as a theoretical framework in this study. Cross-impact analysis is used as a method for investigating interactions among elements of an IS value creation system. These elements were identified through 22 semi-structured interviews with organisational stakeholders, and assessed in terms of direction and strength of their interactions, and depicted in a coordinate system.

The result of the analysis is a meaningful classification of elements in an IS value creation system as: levers, indicators, identities, buffers or trends, based on their position in the system. The results provide additional clarity and insights into the relationships between IS and organisational resources and their effect on IS value.

The research findings have important implications for researchers and managers in terms of understanding the impact of interactions among IS and organisational resources on formulating successful strategies for managing the IS value creation system.

This study explores interactions among IS/information technology resources and organisational resources by using cross-impact analysis. It shows that interactions among the identified resources do have a major influence on the overall IS value creation system.

Numerous studies have set out to examine the relationship between strategic resources and firm performance. The traditional VRIO attributes have been the point of departure in most resource‐based studies. This paper sets out to argue that the relationship between resources and performance is more complex. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to illustrate the complex relationship between a strategic resource and firm performance by providing an overview of different factors that can influence this relationship.

Relevant literature is reviewed and discussed.

It was found that five criteria must be fulfilled for resources to generate superior performance. These are identified and discussed. These criteria fit with existing resources, management capability, marketing capability, firm appropriation of rent, and non‐competitive disadvantages.

By using the criteria identified, resource‐based theory can become less tautological. Also, the criteria highlight the importance of resource utilization and appropriation of resource‐based rents.

The paper could contribute to an increased awareness among practitioners of the importance of focusing on factors which are additional to the VRIO‐attributes when analyzing potential strategic resources. The criteria provide an easy‐to‐access framework for strategic analysis.

Whereas some specific aspects of the relationship between the possession of resources and firm performance have been reviewed in some RBT contributions, few studies have addressed the issue using a more holistic approach. Thus, this paper affords a broader approach on the relationship between strategic resources and firm performance.

In recent years, resource‐based theory has emerged as one of the most promising theoretical frameworks in the field of strategic management. Unfortunately, past articulations of the theory have adopted a static orientation, with the result that organizational learning ‐ a dynamic process ‐ has been excluded from the discussion. Presents a model designed to incorporate organizational learning effects into the resource‐based view. Then applies the model to a number of case examples to demonstrate the importance of including organizational learning as a component of resource‐based theory. Concludes that organizational learning is itself a strategic capability or resource important to the process of building and maintaining competitive advantage.