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Economic theory holds that in the normal course, and in the absence of
market imperfections, abnormal economic rents will get competed away by rivals
or new entrants to an industry. The Resource Based View holds that firms can
earn sustainable supra-normal returns if and only if they have superior resources
and those resources are protected by some form of isolating mechanism preventing
their diffusion throughout industry.
Early adopters of the Resource Based View
Edith Penrose contributed to the RBV field as early as 1959, when
she argued: "a firm is more than an administrative unit; it is also a collection
of productive resources the disposal of which between different users and
over time is determined by administrative decision. When we regard the function
of the private business firm from this point of view, the size of the firm
is best gauged by some measure of the productive resources it employs". And
Birger Wernerfelt coined the term in 1984.
 Jay Barney's Resource Based View of the Firm
However most scholars consider Jay Barney as the father of the modern
Resource-Based View of the Firm (RBV). His theory ('91) suggests that there
can be heterogeneity or firm-level differences among firms that allow some
of them to sustain competitive advantage. Therefore, the RBV emphasizes strategic
choice, charging the management of the firm with the important tasks of identifying,
developing and deploying key resources to maximize returns.
Barney (1991: "Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage")
made clear that abnormal rents can be earned from resources to the extent
that they are VRIN:
- Valuable (when they enable a firm to conceive or implement strategies
that improve its efficiency or effectiveness)
- Rare (valuable firm resources possessed by large numbers of competing
firms can not be sources of either a competitive advantage or a sustainable
competitive advantage)
- Imperfectly Imitable (because of {a combination of} three reasons: unique
historical conditions, causally ambiguous, social complex)
- Non-Substitutable (there must not be strategically equivalent valuable
resources that are themselves either not rare or imitable)
Other strategists on the Resource Based view of the firm
Differences may occur in the form of resources such as patents, properties,
proprietary technologies, or relationships. Most scholars claim that it is
only/mainly intangible resources that explain performance heterogeneity among
firms and thus are the likely sources of competitive advantage. (Galbreath
and Galvin recently discovered that while RBV theory largely associates
firm performance with intangible resources, the association may not always
hold true empirically. One explanation may be that the strength of some resources
are dependent upon interactions or combinations with other resources and therefore
no single resource - intangible or otherwise - becomes the most important
to firm performance. (Academy of Management Best conference Paper 2004 BPS:
L6))
'VRIN
resources' are tough to find. This becomes especially clear when we look
at the work done on strategies sometimes characterized as 'economizing' (Porter,
1996). These include reengineering, enterprise
systems, benchmarking, downsizing,
and other similar approaches of efficiency. Unfortunately, such techniques
are available to all competitors in an industry. They merely raise the bar
for everyone, usually in a transparent way, and do not produce long-term competitive
advantage.
There is a dilemma in attainable resources not being sustainable. Clearly
valuable resources that sustain advantage must be hard or impossible to imitate
-and therefore not available to those who do not already have them. Imitable
resources, on the other hand, can be attained by their aspirants. But as soon
as they show clear promise, they risk being competed away: their strength
becomes their weakness. Thus attainable resources are not sustainable.
Recent developments on the Resource Based View
More recently, the dynamic capability perspective has extended the Resource
Based View to the realm of evolving capabilities. By developing capabilities
based on sequences of path-dependent learning, a firm can stay ahead of its
imitators and continue to earn superior returns (Dierickx and Cool,
1991; Teece et al., 1997). There is nothing to say, however, that most
firms have the capacity to place themselves on a learning curve that would
prevent rivals from leapfrogging them. To do so they would have to pick an
optimal capability development trajectory that is (a) strictly path dependent
to sustain first mover advantage, and (b) nonsubstitutable with an equally
efficient trajectory. Bounded rationality conditions might obstruct the first
aim, conditions of equifinality the second. Again the goal of inimitability
is highly demanding, and asks the question of how to achieve it with assets,
resources, or capabilities the firm does not already have. Thus notwithstanding
major advances in the field of strategy, practitioners are left with a dilemma:
how to develop sustainable advantage that they do not possess, but is nonetheless
attainable.
A study by Danny Miller of a number of firms shows how some of them
were able to build not so much on resources and capabilities as on asymmetries.
Asymmetries are typically skills, processes, or assets a firm's competitors
do not and cannot copy at a cost that affords economic rents. They are rare,
hard or impossible to imitate and non-substitutable, although not connected
to any engine of value creation, and, in fact, often act as liabilities. By
discovering and reconceptualizing these asymmetries, embedding them within
a complementary organizational design, and leveraging them across appropriate
market opportunities, many firms were able to turn asymmetries into sustainable
capabilities.
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Resource Based View of the Firm Special Interest Group
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Resource Based View of the Firm Education & Events
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 How to Measure Resource Based View of the Firm
Does anyone have an idea of how to measure the exi...
Usage (application): Measuring the Existence of RBV in an Organization
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How to Avoid Imitation?
How can barriers to imitation be created?
Ho...
Usage (application): Protection of your Strategic Resources Against Imitation
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Three Schools of Thought for Firm-internal Factors for Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Three schools of thought have now been identified ...
Usage (application): Achieving Sustainable Competitive Advantage
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Differences Between Resources and Capabilities
These are the main differences between resource...
Usage (application): The 4 Main Differences
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Key Challenges of Internet Age for Management and for Product and Service Development
The Internet age represents a huge challenge for m...
Usage (application): R&D, Product Development, Service Development, Strategy, Marketing, Innovation, Visioning
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A Corporate Theory: Long-term Handhold and Guidance in Turbulent Times?
According to Professor Todd Zenger, companies shou...
Usage (application): Inside-out Corporate Strategy, Corporate Visioning
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What are Smart Creatives? Traits
To accommodate the strategic demands of the intern...
Usage (application): R&D, Product Development, Service Development, Strategy, Innovation, HR, Career Management
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Distinguish Resources and Capabilites
Scholars Silja Korhoen and Juha S. Niemela argue t...
Usage (application): Why the Difference Matters
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Dynamic Capabilities View
Click on More for an explanation of Dynamic Capabi...
Usage (application): VRIN: Strategic Learning
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Usages of the Resource Based View
Note that RBV may be used in several distinct dime...
Usage (application): Application Areas of RBV
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 Resource-based View and Barney's Adapted VRIO Framework In-depth
Presentation about the Resource-based view focusin...
Usage (application): Resource-based View, Barney, VRIO-framework, Internal Analysis
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Theory Behind Barney's Resource-based View of Exemplar Returns
Comprehensive Powerpoint presentation on the backg...
Usage (application): Understanding / Presenting RBV of the Firm
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 Why Resources are Important?
Humorous picture clearly shows why resources are i...
Usage (application): Funny Picture
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Definition, Differences and Relationships between Resources, Capabilities, Competencies and Core Competencies
Javidan (1998) has made a great contribution to an...
Usage (application): Core Competencies
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Porter's Industrial Organization Versus Barney's Resource Based View
This presentation compares Porter's competitive ad...
Usage (application): Business Strategy, Value Chain Management
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 Capability Lifecycles
Article by Constance E. Helfat and Margaret A. Pet...
Usage (application): Maturity Management
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The Resource Based View, Comparative Advantage and Competitive Heteroginity
This paper by Anoop Madhok and Sali Li is primaril...
Usage (application): Resource Based View, Comparative Advantage
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The Networked Firm and RBV
This conceptual paper by Nick Wills-Johnson provid...
Usage (application): Networks, Social Capital
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Resource Based View Diagram
Download and edit this 12manage PowerPoint graphic...
Usage (application): Business / Corporate Strategy
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Compare with the Resource Based View of the Firm:
Core Competence |
Delta Model |
Parenting Advantage |
Strategy Dynamics
| SWOT Analysis |
Prahalad |
Porter Five Forces |
Distinctive Capabilities |
3C's |
Bricks and Clicks |
Twelve Principles
of the Network Economy |
Blue Ocean Strategy
| Product/Market Grid
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Three Dimensional Business Definition |
Strategic Management
Return to Management Hub: Decision-making & Valuation |
Finance & Investing |
Knowledge & Intangibles |
Marketing
More Management Methods, Models and Theory
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Special Interest Group Leader
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