Are there always synergies between productive resources and resource deployment capabilities?

Abstract

While the independent impacts of particular firm resources and deployment capabilities on firm performance are unambiguous cornerstones of the strategy field, it is commonly assumed that their joint impacts are synergistic. This article seeks to understand whether this common misconception of resource‐based theory can be refuted empirically. Using data from hospitals conducting specialist surgery, I find hospital performance improves independently through better surgical resource quality and from more use of a streamlined form of resource management in which overall patient team leadership and operating team leadership are held by the same physician. Generally the interaction of these two firm activities had no impact on performance. These results contribute to the strategy field's understanding of whether and when internal fit affects performance, clarifying an incorrect inference commonly made about resource‐based theory. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Resource orchestration in the context of knowledge resources acquisition and divestment. The empirical evidence from the Italian “Serie A” football

“…In particular, this finding addresses the subtraction of co-specialization from a given unit. Although the extant literature has noted the relevance of knowledge resource co-specialization and its positive effect on performance (Reagans et al, 2005;Huckman et al, 2009;Huesch, 2013), it has not probed the opposite relationship -specifically, what occurs when co-specialization is subtracted from a given unit.…”

“…Some of these studies empirically observe a non-monotonic (i.e., inverted U-shaped) effect of co-specialization on performance (Katz, 1982;Berman et al, 2002), which implies that, beyond a certain level of shared experience, a firm becomes predictable and its knowledge ossified. Other studies have instead maintained and empirically found a linear relationship between employees' co-specialization and performance (Reagans et al, 2005;Huckman et al, 2009;Huesch, 2013). For example, in the context of healthcare, both Reagans et al (2005) and Huesch (2013) find a positive relationship between the degree of co-specialization and operating-and caring-team and performance; similarly, Huckman et al (2009) observe a positive effect for co-specialization (i.e., team familiarity) on performance in the software industry.…”

Mediating effect of marketing capability and reward philosophy in the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance

“…However, there is risk of poor synergies among such resources, including asymmetric information, which implies on underestimated resources (Warnier, Weppe, & Lecocq, 2013). The underestimate resources may bring failure of incentive system, co-specialization or co-development of resources (Huesch, 2013).…”

How Do Resource Structuring and Strategic Flexibility Interact to Shape Radical Innovation?

“…Our contributions are built upon the hidden links between resource structuring (as a special type of resource configuration mechanism for dynamic resource bundling) and strategic flexibility (as a special type of organizational capability to manage dynamic context) in terms of their complementing as well as substituting roles in different aspects, which are especially salient in the special context of high uncertainty. Our new approach to integrating resource structuring with strategic flexibility not only complements both resource management research (Huesch, ; Sirmon and Hitt, ) and strategic flexibility research (Liu et al, ; Sanchez, ), but also provides a novel explanation for the conflicting findings about the complex links between resource and innovation (Kale and Singh, ; Laursen and Salter, ).…”