Value, rareness, competitive advantage, and performance: a conceptual‐level empirical investigation of the resource‐based view of the firm

Abstract

The resource-based view of the firm (RBV) hypothesizes that the exploitation of valuable, rare resources and capabilities contributes to a firm's competitive advantage, which in turn contributes to its performance. Despite this notion, few empirical studies test these hypotheses at the conceptual level. In response to this gap, this study empirically examines the relationships between value, rareness, competitive advantage, and performance. The results suggest that value and rareness are related to competitive advantage, that competitive advantage is related to performance, and that competitive advantage mediates the rareness-performance relationship. These findings have important academic and practitioner implications which are then discussed.

How do dynamic capabilities transform external technologies into firms’ renewed technological resources? – A mediation model

“…The key logic behind the proposed conceptual framework for the external resource path is that a firm's dynamic capabilities will change and develop in response to the attributes of external access to valuable resources, a process through which a firm's VRIN resource configurations could be renewed. This conceptual positioning is in line with the recent theoretical development regarding the DCV, which suggests that dynamism exists in the interplay between a firm's dynamic capabilities and resource base, allowing the modification of the resource base (Chen, Su, & Tsai, 2007;Ambrosini & Bowman, 2009;Peteraf & Bergen, 2003;Sirmon & Hitt, 2009;Ndofor, Sirmon, & He, 2011;Newbert, 2008). Figure 1 here…”

“…The dynamic capabilities view (DCV) focuses on how firms' internal capabilities help transform resources into advantaged firm performance (Barney, 1991;Penrose, 1959;Teece, Pisano, & Shuen, 1997). The recent theoretical development recognizes that it is the combination of valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable, and non-substitutable (VRIN) resources and capabilities that lead to a firm's renewed/reconfigured resource base, which eventually creates competitive advantages (Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000;Newbert, 2008;Helfat & Peteraf, 2009). …”

Strategic intent: The literature, the construct and its role in predicting organization performance

“…Strategic intent is an invisible firm resource that takes considerable time, CEO thought and energy working with the TMT to conceive, communicate, nurture and deliver (Hamel & Prahalad, 1989). What is a winning strategic intent for one organization in an industry can have little or no importance for another in the same industry (Newbert, 2008). This relates to the lack of contingency theories for prescriptions of application for the resource-based view, the lack of specifics on the contextual boundaries of firm resources and the lack of specifics on the 'when, where and how' (Priem & Butler, 2001: 33) firm resources may be useful which was referred to earlier.…”

The Influence of Industry Characteristics and Dynamic Capabilities on Firms’ Profitability

“…Although the importance of the internal factors for the firm's competitive advantage and performance was highlighted in Penrose's theory of firm growth in the 1950s, the resource-based view has developed with the works of Wernerfelt (1984), Rumelt (1984) and, particularly, those of Barney (1986Barney ( , 1991. Reviews of the empirical research in the field have been given by Barney and Arikan (2001), Crook et al (2008), andNewbert (2008).…”