Abstract
The German philosopher Hegel told us that one can understand oneself better by understanding others. By seeing what one is not, one sees better what one is. In the stream of discussions at the Copenhagen conference, I gained a new perspective on the challenge of blending evolutionary and strategic theories of the firm: the biggest hurdles are not analytical but philosophical. Evolutionary theorists and business strategists have fundamentally different world views. Although our preconference paper (see Chapter 1) duly noted the different legacies of each tradition, we missed the enormity of the ideology, the deep-seated convictions and ways of seeing that underlie the respective streams of work.
This paper benefited from many conversations with Robert E. Kennedy and Birger Wemerfelt. Elizabeth Wynne Johnson helped to frame the issues from the venerable perspective of the liberal arts. Their insights are gratefully acknowledged
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Montgomery, C.A. (1995). Of Diamonds and Rust: A New Look at Resources. In: Montgomery, C.A. (eds) Resource-Based and Evolutionary Theories of the Firm: Towards a Synthesis. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2201-0_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2201-0_10
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