The significance of Marx's value for strategy theory: competitive advantage and the issue of tautology within the resource-based view of the firm

Marxian thinking following the TSSI (Temporal Single System Interpretation) of Marx is applied to refute the allegation of a tautology in the resource-based view of the firm--paired with providing an explanation of how and why resources create value--, where resources are synonymous with Marx's categories of constant and variable capital. Refuting the allegation naturally leads to the holy grail of resource-based thinking, i.e. the question of what, conceptually, constitutes a firm's competitive advantage within the industry context. The article achieves its objectives by tying the resource-based view into Marx's theory value.

Corporate social responsibility : a resource-based view of the firm

This paper reviews the application of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an intangible dynamic resource, its application in the formulation of marketing strategies and its association with business performance, using the theoretical framework of resource-based view of the firm (RBV). The study aims to address the control and governance of the application of the CSR with respect to self-control and regulatory control of corporate compliance. A model of CSR is suggested that represents the predictors of the construct (CSR) to facilitate the test of its usefulness in explaining the extent to which organisations may choose to be socially responsible.

The natural resource-based view of the firm (NRBV): constraints and opportunities for a green team in professional sport

Burgeoning expectations of the sport industry’s role in managing the environmental impact on its community are increasing. While previous research has focused on factors contributing to environmental involvement, little is known about the organization’s approach in dealing with these responsibilities. An exploratory case evaluation of a Major League Baseball team in evaluating the constraints, demands and opportunities of managing environment issues is undertaken. Specifically, the Natural-Resource-Based View of the firm (NRBV) is used to frame the assessment of the team’s capabilities and strategies with consideration of internal and external dynamics. Qualitative methods were which resulted in the identified key themes and implications

Electronic commerce investments, the resource-based view of the firm, and firm market value

Firms have embraced electronic commerce as a means of doing business, either because they see it as a way to improve efficiency, grow market share, expand into new markets, or because they view it as essential for survival. Recent research in the United States provides some evidence that the market does value investments in electronic commerce. Following research that suggests that, in certain circumstances, the market values noninnovative investments as well as innovative investments in new products, we partition electronic commerce investment project announcements into innovative and noninnovative to determine whether there are excess returns associated with these types of announcements. Apart from our overall results being consistent with the United States findings that the market values investments in electronic commerce projects, we also find that noninnovative investments are perceived as more valuable to the firm than innovative investments. On average, the market expects innovative investments to earn a return commensurate with their risk. We conclude that innovative electronic commerce projects are most likely seen by the capital market as easily replicable, and consequently have little, if any, competitive advantage period. On the other hand, we conclude from the noninnovative investment results that these types of investments are seen as being compatible with a firm's assets-in-place, in particular, its information technology capabilities, a view consistent with the resource-based view of the firm.

Contribution of Resource-Based View and Entrepreneurial Orientation on Small Firm Growth

[EN] This research provides a useful framework for identifying a small firms’ propensity to engage in entrepreneurial orientation. We examine the impact of the Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) as a main resource and capability on small firm’ growth. The growth seems to come out as an important demonstration of the entrepreneurial orientation of small firms (Davidsson, 1989; Green and Brown, 1997; Janney and Gregory, 2006). Thus, this research builds on prior conceptual research that suggests a positive integration between entrepreneurial orientation and resource-based view. In the first instance, the research will focus on reviewing literature in the emerging area of entrepreneurial orientation as it applies to growth oriented small firms and resource-based view of the firm. Secondly, an empirical study was developed based on a stratified sample of small firms of manufacturing industry. Data were submitted to a multivariate statistical analysis and a linear regression model was performed in order to predict the influence of the resources and capabilities on small firms’ growth. In this sense, we consider the construct growth as a dependent variable and the ones relates with resources and capabilities (entrepreneur resources, firm resources, networks and EO) as independent variables. The research results suggest a set of resources and capabilities that promote the growth of the small firms. Also, the EO seems to have a predictive value on growth. Explaining variables related with resources and capabilities and EO were identified as essential in growth oriented small firms. It was still possible to conclude that the entrepreneurial firms which grew seem to have resources and develop more capabilities and take advantage in the search for those competences. This attitude reflects on the EO of the firm. This study has important implication for both researchers and practitioners. It highlights the necessity of firms to develop superior EO of all their members and also to invest on better resources and consequently superior capabilities as a way of reaching higher levels of growth. While previous authors have attempted to analyse certain aspects of this process (linkage between entrepreneurial orientation and growth), this research developed a framework that combines these and others factors (resource-based view) pertinent to growth oriented small firms. The results support the necessity to identify explicative variables of multiple levels to explain the growth of small firms. The adoption of an entrepreneurial orientation as an indispensable variable to the growth oriented small firms seems pertinent.

International entrepreneurship for SME business growth : a resource and dynamic capability view of the firm : an internet context

This research explores the relationship between international business Internet capabilities and international entrepreneurial characteristics. It has been suggested, that the accumulation of a firms Internet capability can assist international operations, especially when operating in fast changing dynamic environments. However, the international entrepreneurial characteristics which are seen as a precursor to leveraging such capabilities are still vague. Given this finding a conceptual framework is constructed and research issues are then developed in order to focus attention on the relationship between the Internet and a firm’s resource base, dynamic capabilities and international market performance.

The resource-based view of strategy: application to the agricultural industry

IP a The paper examines the application of the Resource-Based View of strategy (RBV) to the Australian floral industry. Despite the RBV's successful application to research in a number of discipline areas and the formalisation of its relationship with Competitive Advantage (CA) 15 years ago, the empirical support for the benefit of the RBV and development of research constructs has been inadequate. This has been partly due to the difficulty of identifying and separating the contribution of resources. The RBV literature is now consistent in the criteria required of a resource for CA and identifies a range of empirical research objectives (e.g. the need for contextual constructs), data evaluation focuses (e.g. measuring the impact of management, process, regional and scale affects) and results objectives (such as identifying the causal structure of resources). Research was conducted in the Australian floral industry to produce supporting generalisable data and constructs for the RBV. This industry is well bounded with several strongly differentiating resources and operates in a global market environment, which is necessary for these research objectives. Six hypotheses were examined; (1) the use of resources as the input of the CA, (2) the impact of the development process on resources, (3) the impact of management control on the development of resources (4) the impact on capability of management, process, region and scale, (5) the impact of resource development maturity on the approach to resource development and (6) the possibility of evaluating individual resources according to various criteria. The data was collected using selected participant interviews, with validation of conclusions by industry experts. It was analysed using content analysis, comparative analysis and cognitive mapping. The research determined that organisations in the Australian floral industry possessed important resources including geography, skills, technology, R&D, supply chains and production costs. These contributed to four CA creating production outputs; quality, capacity, reliability and customer convenience. The research findings supported hypotheses 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6. The lack of support for the two remaining hypotheses, relating to the process of resource development, may be explained by the low resource development maturity of the industry which masks the impact of the resource development process. The results also determined that one resource could contribute to a number of CAs and that resources not meeting all of the normal RBV CA criteria could still provide a CA in an industry where few resources met all criteria. It was postulated that these resources’ contribution to competitive was not durable.

A resource-based view of small export firms' social capital in a Southeast Asian country

This study empirically examines the social capital that facilitates the flow of export knowledge, thereby supporting the entrepreneurial stance of small export firms. By applying the VRIO (value, rarity, inimitability and organisation of firm resources) framework to the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, this study suggests that superior performance is a function of resources that are valuable, rare, inimitable and sufficiently organised to develop and sustain the firm's competitive advantage. This study argues that small, resource-constrained export firms in a developing economy are able to adopt entrepreneurial tactics and reap positive rates of return by exploiting their relational capital to acquire export knowledge. A survey of 175 small export firms in the Philippines was conducted, and the data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results suggest positive relationships between the firm's social capital and export knowledge. Export knowledge is associated with entrepreneurial orientation, which then correlates with export performance.

Small firm training: Just meeting the day-to-day needs of the business

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore what the attitudes of small firm owner-managers are to developing the skills of their key resources and then examine how these and other factors affect owner-managers’ preferences for training these employees. Design/methodology/approach This study of training in small road transport firms in West Australia is cast in light of the literature on human resource management in small firms underpinned by insights drawn using the resource based view of the firm. Small firms (less than 20 people) dominate this industry, while the increasing freight task, and extreme distances between West Australian ports, towns and mines highlight this sectors’ importance. Survey results from 39 small road transport firms and interviews with nine owner-managers are analysed. Findings Legislative, regulatory and licensing requirements were shown to be a key determinant of skills development. Employers ensured that basic standards for employee certification and qualification were met, as the penalty for not doing so would be too high. Regulations drove the need for certain types of training – licenses, fatigue management, occupational health and safety, handling dangerous goods, the Maritime Security Identification Card card, forklift license, mine site inductions – while owner-managers knew where to get the training their staff needed. Although regulation appeared most visible in prescribing what happened in relation to training for drivers, the relevance of owner-managers’ attitudes could not be ignored, nor could conditions in the firms external environment as this shaped how these requirements were met. Research limitations/implications The RBV is useful in showing how skill development enabled similarity in skills across firms, while the attitudes owner-managers and economic and social conditions meant what happened in firms around skill development varied. The importance of small firm owner-managers’ attitudes are clearly highlighted and shown to influence organizational decisions and choices around training, but these were not independent of the regulatory framework and the economic and social conditions within which the firm operated. The small firms in this study did engage workers in formal training when necessary but it was put in the context of the idiosyncratic approach of the owner-manager and the day-to-day needs of the firm. “Training” was essentially about ensuring certain types of skills were held by employees and then passing on knowledge to ensure the behavior of employees was consistent with the owner-manager’s vision for the firm in its current environment. Originality/value Ways industry and government can encourage training activity that goes beyond the day-to-day firm needs are suggested.