International audienceWe develop a formal model of the timing of resource development by competing firms. Our aim is to deepen and extend resource-level theorizing about sustainable competitive advantage. Our analysis formalizes the notion of barriers to imitation, particularly those based on time compression diseconomies where the faster a firm develops a resource, the greater the cost. Time compression diseconomies are derived from a micromodel of resource development with diminishing returns to effort. We use a continuous time model of the flows of development costs and market revenues, which allows us to integrate strategic and financial analyses of firm investment problems. We examine two dimensions of sustainability: whether the resources underlying a firm's competitive advantage are economically imitable and, if so, how long imitation takes. Surprisingly, we show that sustainable competitive advantage does not necessarily lead to superior performance. We find that imitators sometimes benefit from reductions in their absorptive capacity and that innovators should license either all or none of their knowledge. Despite recent criticisms, we reaffirm the usefulness of a resource level of analysis for strategy research, especially when the focus is on resources developed through internal projects with identifiable stopping times

International audienceEntry timing benefits and costs typically vary with firms' capabilities. In this study, we empirically examine the entry timing implications of firms' intrinsic speed capabilities, which refer to the ability to execute investment projects faster than competitors. We hypothesize that firms with intrinsic speed capabilities face low preemption risks and, thus, can afford to wait longer for uncertainty resolution before deciding to enter new markets. This hypothesis is more applicable when investment is associated with higher levels of commitment and, thus, greater option value of waiting. A direct implication is that late entrants with intrinsic speed capabilities should have greater expected post-entry performance. We find support for these hypotheses in the Atlantic Basin liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry from 1996 to 2007

International audienceThis article examines how leader firms should respond to the erosion of competitive advantages caused by rapid imitation and innovation in hypercompetitive environments. On the one hand, shorter-lived advantages induce leaders to develop new advantages faster. On the other hand, hypercompetition also erodes the expected returns from new advantages--reducing leaders' incentives to accelerate investments. Since investing faster also raises costs, this article shows that leaders often prefer to renew competitive advantages more slowly in more hypercompetitive industries--thereby increasing the probability of being displaced by competitors. This phenomenon is dubbed self-displacement. Firms' decision to self-displace themselves from industry leadership with greater probability is deliberate and rational--not a result of leaders' inability to respond to competitive threats, as previously assumed in the literature. This article also shows that leaders' rule of thumb in more hypercompetitive environments should be to accelerate the development of advantages with high competitive value but low market value. This study is based on a theoretical model and numerical analysis grounded on stylized empirical facts that govern industry competitive macrodynamics and firm investment microdynamics in most industries. Because the model builds on empirically observable constructs, its theoretical propositions are amenable to large sample testing

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