Resource Orchestration as a Source of a Competitive Advantage for Cities

Abstract

-DeutschInmitten des aktuellen Urbanisierungstrends bietet diese Dissertation eine Antwort auf den Mere resources are frequently insufficient to generate competitiveness in our increasingly demanding world; urban administrators, policymakers and other practitioners concerned with the management of their place need capabilities to use resources efficiently while adapting to their changing environments. Therefore, I argue for the value of extending the resource-based theory -especially, its dynamic refinement, the theory of resource orchestration -to answer the question how places can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. I develop a fourstep process framework of strategically managing resources and developing capabilities that includes (a) structuring their resource portfolio, (b) bundling resources to capabilities, (c) leveraging capability configurations and (d) continuously synchronizing each activity.I try to give this model its specific urban shape by zooming into the city and empirically applying it to the internationally growing urban governance tool of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs). The first empirical study emphasizes one particularly important, placespecific resource, namely social capital, and examines the unique relationships between social capital and resource bundling based on archival, interview and direct observation data of 12BIDs in New York City. The findings suggest that each component of the resource bundling process mediates between social capital and the BID's capability to function as community development entity. Contents IVThe second empirical study focusses on capability leveraging and elaborates this resource orchestration step in the context of 15 BID-government relationships in the City of Hamburg.This chapter advances qualitative research to disentangle the actual processes of strategy development, coordination and implementation between public and private actors. It identifies different leveraging approaches and collaborative outcomes depending on the social capital configurations of the BID-government relationships. By focusing on the partnerships' networks of relationships, inherent interests and capabilities that enable (or inhibit) public and private actors to work together, the study makes an important contribution to the literature, theorizing the entire process of how public-private collaborations are strategically managed.Combined, this dissertation informs theory and practice on the strategic management of cities and BIDs. The focus shifts from viewing them as black box, through which certain inputs flow to become outputs, towards the development of capabilities for policymakers, administrators and practitioners that allow them to utilize resources efficiently and establish structures to work collaboratively. Hereby, I show and explain how places can affect their development trajectories through conscious managerial actions taken to increase their performance.

Empowering resources recombination through dynamic capabilities of an enterprise

“…Competitive advantage rests to a large extent on the capabilities of the HEIs to sense opportunities for accessing and seizing new resources, and then reconfiguring them internally. Berseck and Zu Knyphausen-Aufseß (2018) and Muneeb et al (2020), suggested that higher education policymakers need capabilities to use and recombine resources efficiently while simultaneously adapting to their changing environments for HEI competitiveness. It can be argued that DCs are instrumental in determining the capacity of a firm to successfully implement actions that result in a sustained competitive advantage (Hou and Chien, 2010).…”

Entrepreneurial orientation as the basis for resource orchestration, business resilience and family livelihood in turbulent, resource-scarce contexts : a study among non-farm entrepreneurs in Ethiopia

“…Small firms operating in DCs are often challenged by a lack of resources to further their development; hence, EO could enable them to overcome the limitations and weakness of formal institutional environments in DCs to access needed resources and use them. Firm owners/entrepreneurs who want to orchestrate their resources and strengthen their firm's resilience in this context must develop EO capabilities across various organizational boundaries (Berseck and zu Knyphausen-Aufseß 2018). Social networking is also a valuable strategy that entrepreneurs need to consider, in combination with EO, especially for resource acquisition in the DC context.…”