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The resource‐based view (RBV) explores the role of key resources, identified as intangible assets and capabilities, in creating competitive advantage and superior performance. To a great extent the conceptual analysis and empirical research within the RBV has focused on the firm's perspective of key resources and the value to the firm of these key resources. The other perspective on key resources is to explore the value they provide to the customer. The question of interest here is whether key resources that hold value for the firm also hold value for the customer.

A depth interview was trialled as an appropriate methodology by which to begin to explore the customer perspective of key resources.

This trial suggests that further investigation of the customer perspective will provide a clearer view of customers' assessment of the firm's valuable resources. The trial interview with a key customer indicates there are subtle differences in the ranking of valued skills and capabilities between producers and customers that if verified in further trials, have potential to better focus firms on key resources valued by customers.

This trial provides insight into the process of identification of the factors that customers regard as the firm's valuable resources and how this influences their choice of firm. Differences in ranking of key resources by customers compared to those of producers could lead to re‐evaluation of skills and experience background for staff recruitment purposes, and training programs to better reflect customer valuation preferences.

Interest in investigating key supplier relationships from both academic and corporate spheres has increased in recent years. However, it is difficult to develop a sustainable and effective model for evaluating key supplier relationships because the information available in the practical environment is often uncertain and asymmetric. The purpose of this paper is to identify critical factors concerning key suppliers selection derive from resource-based view and construct a hierarchical evaluation framework which has elements of implied change or transformation of the firm’s resources for operation strategies when evaluating key suppliers relationships. Moreover, the authors propose a fuzzy preference relations (FPR) model, with a hierarchical evaluation framework, to address the imprecise and inconsistent information used by managers to evaluate key supplier relationships and further to select appropriate suppliers.

The FPR model based on the consistent FPR methodology not only provides an efficient and systematic evaluation for key supplier relationships by using the performance and evaluation scores of each key supplier, but also solves problems arising from the conventional multi-criteria analysis approach. This methodology is faster to execute and enhance the consistency and accuracy with regard to the decision makers’ judgments. To illustrate how the model is created and assessed, the authors use the TFT-LCD TV panel manufacturing industry as an empirical subject.

The FPR model holds promise for assisting TFT-LCD TV manufacturers in evaluating key supplier relationships with TFT-LCD TV panel suppliers. The findings indicate that first, “the supplier’s product quality” is the most important factor when evaluating key supplier relationships, followed by “selling price set by the supplier” and “specialized supplier development capability”; second, after the 1980s, all suppliers had similar delivery capabilities with only small differences in delivery times, such that the relative importance of “time required for shipments” has become less significant, and customer awareness of the “customer assistance and service” factor has been heightened; third, the provision of excellent product quality and attractive low prices by suppliers requires technical capability, therefore, from the perspectives of industry experts, “specialized supplier development capability” is far more important than “time required for shipments”; and fourth, TFT-LCD TV manufacturers need to focus on their product quality performance continually, and concentrate on applying process technology strategy as well as product and service development strategy to build up “difficult to imitate resources” for competitive advantages.

The main contribution is to provide managers with an efficient and systematic model that can evaluate the performance of key supplier relationships in terms of critical factors derived from resource-based theories. By focussing on employing the proposed model with successful management for key supplier relationships, the authors hope to help buying companies improve the benefits of supplier relationships. Because of the uncertainties and complexities of real strategy making in TFT-LCD TV panel industry, the authors offer a model that implicitly assume that managers can have influences over the strategic direction of their organization.

The purpose of this study was to explore the process of change in existing professional sport organisations as they initiate a women's team.

Three Australian Football League clubs with licenses for professional women's teams were examined, with semi-structured interviews held with three key department managers from each club.

The findings suggest organisations adopt either a community-focused or commercially focused approach, the selection of which is a response to the interplay of institutional pressures (e.g. league demands), resource demands (e.g. human and financial) and the strategic choices of a few, key “idea champions”.

This study provides insight into the approach change taken by clubs as they introduce a women's team into their existing organisational structure.

Conventional theories of market entry assume choice availability. This investment assumption is subject to challenges in the power generation market of an emerging economy where the host government controls most key resources and market entry choices. With such constraints, entrants become heavily dependent on their host country partners. This study investigates how the resource dependency frameworks explain better in respect of some US power generation firms that manage to operate electricity facilities in China whereas some have to abort. Using cross‐case analysis, patterns emerged illustrate how two groups of entrants manage key resources differently.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the benefits of integrating the theory of constraints (TOC), resources-based theory (RBT), resource advantage theory (RAT), with a structured project-based methodology e.g., Project Management Body of Knowledge. This paper describes each theory and explores what benefits a unified model would bring to project management. This paper represents the conceptual development of an integrated framework that will be tested in a range of project management scenarios in various industrial sectors.

Extant literature is used to develop a conceptual framework of an integrated model that will be tested in the field for robustness. The model has been applied to published projects to identify its strengths and weaknesses.

The work shows important implications for improved success of projects from the use of TOC, RAT and resource dependence theory (RDT). Specifically, it emphasizes the need for application of strategic theories to project management.

While TOC, RAT and RDT are well established in the context of organization theory, there is limited application in project management. Moreover, the model has yet to be applied in the field. The hypotheses identified in this research are currently being tested using field-based surveys.

The research falls short in addressing some resources, e.g. innovation, tacit knowledge and decision making methods in traditional project management context. Therefore, identifying these critical resources in future work and exploiting them as the means of improving project performance would enhance the success of project-based management.

Project management is an emergent discipline and a project is temporary in nature. Therefore, new ideas and development of theories for project management practices are required. This innovative research, for example, may change the way projects are executed in future.

This paper examines the components of a successful project according to the iron triangle, i.e. scope, quality, time and cost. However, through the application of TOC, RAT and RDT into an integrated project-based management framework gives new insights to resources management.

The resource‐based view (RBV) of the firm is a theory that has been explored in academic literature as a means of explaining competitive advantage and, in turn, superior performance amongst firms. In this paper it is argued that the model developed by Fahy offers a concise picture of the nature and role of key resources in strategic management but this picture needs further empirical development. A research approach based on a face‐to face interview is used to explore the process by which a high‐performing firm in the financial services industry in Australia identifies, develops, deploys and protects its key intangible assets and capabilities in sustaining competitive advantage.

The adverse interactions between disruptions can increase the supply chain's vulnerability. Accordingly, establishing supply chain resilience to deal with disruptions and employing business continuity planning to preserve risk management achievements is of considerable importance. The aforementioned idea is discussed in this study.

This study proposes a multi-objective optimization model for employing business continuity management and organizational resilience in a supply chain for responding to multiple interrelated disruptions. The improved augmented e-constraint and the scenario-based robust optimization methods are adopted for multi-objective programming and dealing with uncertainty, respectively. A case study of the automotive battery manufacturing industry is also considered to ensure real-world conformity of the model.

The results indicate that interactions between disruptions remarkably increase the supply chain's vulnerability. Choosing a higher fortification level for the supply chain and foreign suppliers reduces disruption impacts on resources and improves the supply chain's resilience and business continuity. Facilities dispersion, fortification of facilities, lateral transshipment, order deferral policy, dynamic capacity planning and direct transportation of products to markets are the most efficient resilience strategies in the under-study industry.

Applying resource allocation planning and portfolio selection to adopt preventive and reactive resilience strategies simultaneously to manage multiple interrelated disruptions in a real-world automotive battery manufacturing industry, maintaining the long-term achievements of supply chain resilience using business continuity management and dynamic capacity planning are the main contributions of the presented paper.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the unique resources that Indian apparel exporting firms claim to have and the key resources that help provide competitive advantage to these firms.

A web-based content analysis of texts available on “About Us” or related sections of the Indian export firms was conducted. Text data were coded and interpreted.

Physical resources seemed to be one of the most critical resources for their competitive advantages for the study samples. The ability to provide affordable and competitive prices for their products and experience in exporting were recognized as important firm resource described by the study samples.

The study results supported the resource-based theory of the firm by showing additional key firm resources, such as ability to maintain domestic operations and to provide competitive prices that Indian apparel exporters claimed to have. Generalizability of the results is cautioned due to the content and analysis mode of the study data.

The results indicate that design capabilities, flexible production systems, and skilled labor are the key resources that provide Indian apparel industry the competitive advantage over its competitors. Therefore, Indian apparel exporters may want to continue to strengthen and emphasize these abilities to foreign buyers to complete in the global marketplace.

Given the importance of Indian apparel industry in the global market place, this study builds a knowledge base of the key resources possessed by the Indian apparel export firms.

The purpose of this paper is to test the moderated-mediated model using a dataset drawn from 204 manufacturing firms in Australia, and Hayes' PROCESS macro software was used for analyzing the research model.

This study examines how firms can leverage the strategic value of their key supplier for improving their product performance by developing strategic collaborations with the key supplier as a mediating factor. Furthermore, it also seeks to understand the role that commitment plays in strategic relationships by testing how the mediating role of strategic collaboration is moderated by the level of buyer-suppliers relational capital.

The findings show that strategic collaborations mediate the relationship between the strategic value of key supplier and buyer's product performance, and the mediating effect is moderated by the relational capital between the buyer and the key supplier in such a way that the stronger the relational capital the stronger the indirect effect of strategic value of key supplier on buyer's product performance.

The findings show that firms could derive significant benefits from the strategic value of their key supplier in improving their product performance. However, the benefits can only be realized if firms can build successful strategic collaborations in the first place. At the same time, this study also demonstrates the importance of relational capital in terms of commitment and trust with the key supplier that influences the effectiveness of strategic collaborations in realizing the outcome of the collaborations.

This study addresses the gap in the literature by disentangling the complex relationship between a key supplier's strategic value and a buyer's product performance and the role that both collaboration and relational capital play in this relationship. By integrating strategic collaborations and relational capital of buyer-supplier relationships, this study not only confirms the links by testing key supplier's strategic value, strategic collaboration and product performance, but also extends the previous studies by incorporating the moderating role of relational capital as a contingent factor.