Abstract
In this article we present an alternative approach to assessing competitive advantages of a firm and operationalizing the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm in the context of strategic outsourcing. When resource bundles are viewed in the form of activities, they become easier to observe, identify, understand and measure, thus activities can be used to operationalize bundles of resources and capabilities when empirically testing the RBV. We propose a conceptual model and present several propositions for subsequent empirical testing of the RBV.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barney, J.B.: Organizational Culture: Can It Be a Source of Sustained Competitive Advantage. Academy of Management Review 11(3), 656–665 (1986)
Barney, J.B.: Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage. Journal of Management 17(1), 99–120 (1991)
Barney, J.B., William, H.: Organizational economics: understanding the relationship between organizations and economic analysis. Sage, London (1999)
Barney, J.B.: Resource-based theories of competitive advantage: a ten-year retrospective on the resourcebased view. Journal of Management 27, 643–650 (2001)
Barney, J.B., Hesterly, W.: Strategic Management and Competitive Advantage: Concepts and Cases. Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River (2008)
Barney, J.B., Clark, D.N.: Creating and Sustaining Competitive Advantage. Oxford University Press, New York (2007)
Bingham, C.B., Eisenhardt, K.M.: Unveiling the creation and content of strategic processes: How and what firms learn from heterogeneous experience. In: Proceedings of the Academy of Management (2006)
Black, J.A., Boal, K.B.: Strategic resources: Traits, configurations and paths to sustainable competitive advantage. Strategic Management Journal 13, 475–481 (1994)
Collis, D.J.: Research Note: How Valuable Are Organizational Capabilities? Strategic Management Journal 15, 143–152 (Winter 1994)
Dedrick, J.D., Kraemer, K.L.: The Impacts of IT on Firm and IndustryStucture: The Personal Computer Industry. California Management Review 47(3), 123–142 (Spring 2005)
Dibbern, J., Guttler, W., Heinzl, A.: Die Theorie der Unternehmung als Erklaerungsansatz fur das selektierte Outsourcing der Informationsarbeit. Zeitschrift fuer Betriebswirtschaft 71(6) (2000)
Dibbern, J., Goles, T., Hirschheim, R., Jayatilaka, B.: Informations System Outsourcing: A Survey and Analysis of the Literature. The Database for Advances in Information Systems 35(4), 96 (2004)
Dierickx, I., Cool, K.: Asset Stock Accumulation and Sustainability of Competitive Advantage. Management Science 35(12), 1504–1511 (1989)
Foss, N.J., Knudsen, C.A., Montgomery, C.A.: An Exploration of Common Ground: Integrating Evolutionary and Strategic Theories of the Firm. In: Montgomery, C.A. (ed.) Resource-based and evolutionary theories of the firm, pp. 1–17. Kluwer, Dordrecht (1995)
Galbreath, J.: Which resources matter the most to firm success? An exploratory study of resource-based theory. Technovation 25, 979–987 (2005)
Ghemawat, P.: Competition and Business Strategy in Historical Perspective. Business History Review 76, 37–74 (Spring 2002)
Godfrey, P.C., Hill, C.W.: The problem of unobservables in strategic management research. Strategic Management Journal 16, 519–533 (1995)
Hoopes, D.G., Madsen, T.L., Walker, G.: Why is there a resource-based view? Toward a theory of competitive heterogeneity. Strategic Management Journal 24, 889–902 (2003)
Insinga, R.C., Werle, M.L.: Linking outsourcing to business strategy. Academy of Management Executive 14(4), 58–70 (2000)
Klein, B., Crawford, R.G., Alchian, A.A.: Vertical Integration, Appropriable Rents, and the Competitive Contracting Process. The Journal of Law and Economics 21(2), 297–326 (1978)
Lacity, M., Willcocks, L.: Global Information Technology Outsourcing: in search of business advantage. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York (2001)
Lacity, M.C., Willcocks, L.P.: Sourcing Reflections - Lessons for Customers and Suppliers. Wirtschaftsinformatik 45(2), 115–125 (2003)
Langlois, R.: Transaction-cost Economics in Real Time. Industrial and Corporate Change 1(1), 99–127 (1992)
McIvor, R.: How the transaction cost and resource-based theories of the firm inform outsourcing evaluation. Journal of Operations Management, Article (in Press, 2008a)
McIvor, R.: What is the right outsourcing strategy for your process? European Management Journal 26, 24–34 (2008b)
Meyer, A.D.: What is strategy’s distinctive competence? Journal of Management 17, 821–833 (1991)
Nelson, R.R., Winter, S.G.: An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1982)
Newbert, S.L.: Empirical research on the resource-based view of the firm: An assessment and suggestions for future research. Strategic Management Journal 28, 121–146 (2007)
Poppo, L., Zenger, T.: Testing Alternative Theories of the Firm: Transaction Cost,Knowledge-Based, and Measurement Explanations for Make-Or-Buy Decisions in Information Services. Strategic Management Journal 19, 853–877 (1998)
Priem, R.L., Butler, J.E.: Is the resource-based ‘view’ a useful perspective for strategic management research? Academy of Management Review 26(1), 22–40 (2001a)
Priem, R.L., Butler, J.E.: Tautology in the resource-based view and the implications of externally determined resource value: Further comments. Academy of Management Review 26(1), 57–65 (2001b)
Porter, M.E.: Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. Free Press, New York (1980)
Porter, M.: Towards a dynamic theory of strategy. Strategic Management Journal 12(1), 95–117 (1991)
Powell, T.: Competitive advantage: logical and philosophical considerations for Management Studies. Strategic Management Journal 22(9), 875–888 (2001)
Quinn, J.B.: Outsourcing Innovation: The New Engine of Growth. Sloan Management Review, 13–28 (Summer 1999)
Ray, G., Barney, J., Muhana, F.: Capabilities, business processes, and competitive advantage: chosing the dependent variable in empirical tests of the resource based view. Strategic Management Journal 25, 23–37 (2004)
Rouse, M., Daellenbach, U.: More thinking on research methods for the resource-based perspective. Strategic Management Journal 23(10), 963–967 (2002)
Roy, V., Aubert, B.A.: A resource-based analysis of IT sourcing. SIGMIS Database 33(2), 29–40 (2002)
Rumelt, R.: Toward a strategic theory of the firm. Competitive Strategic Management. Competitive Strategic Management. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1984)
Silverman, B.S.: Technological Resources and the Logic of Corporate Diversification, Rotledge, London (2002)
Quinn, J.B.: Strategic Outsourcing: Leveraging Knowledge Capabilities. Sloan Management Review 40(4), 9–21 (1999)
Wernerfelt, B.: A resource-based theory of the firm. Strategic Management Journal 5(2), 171–180 (1984)
Williamson, O.E.: Transaction-Cost Economics: The Governance of Contractual Relations. The Journal of Law and Economics 22(2), 233 (1979)
Williamson, O.E.: The Economics of Organizations: The Transaction cost Approach. American Journal of Sociology 87(3), 548–577 (1981)
Williamson, O.E.: Strategy Research: Governance and Competency perspectives. Strategic Management Journal 20, 1087–1108 (1999)
Zander, U., Kogut, B.: Knowledge and the speed of the transfer and imitation of organizational capabilities: An empirical test. Organization Science 6, 76–92 (1995)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Wiesmann, A., Zalan, T. (2008). Resources, Activities and Competitive Advantage: Application to Outsourcing. In: Lytras, M.D., et al. The Open Knowlege Society. A Computer Science and Information Systems Manifesto. WSKS 2008. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 19. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87783-7_92
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87783-7_92
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-87782-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-87783-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)