IN SEARCH OF STRATEGIC ASSETS

The Resource-Based View of the Firm (RBV) has become an important stream of literature in strategic management. RDV's main prescription is that strategic assets are crucial determinants of sustainable competitive advantage and thus firm performance. Unfortunately, little empirical research has...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of organizational analysis 1997-04, Vol.5 (4), p.360-387
Main Authors: Michalisin, Michael D, Smith, Robert D, Kline, Douglas M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Assets
Competition
Competitiveness
Economic performance
Enterprises
Firm theory
Management
Organization theory
Organizational analysis
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Resource-Based View of the Firm (RBV) has become an important stream of literature in strategic management. RDV's main prescription is that strategic assets are crucial determinants of sustainable competitive advantage and thus firm performance. Unfortunately, little empirical research has been occasioned to substantiate that prescription. Part of the difficulty in empirically testing RBV's main prescription lies in identifying resources capable of being strategic assets. This article combines RBV logic, the definition of strategic assets, Hall's studies, and the logic embodied in several streams of management literature to explain why strategic assets are intangible in nature, to show that not all intangible resources are strategic assets, and to demonstrate that company reputation, product reputation, employee knowhow, and organizational culture possess the characteristics of strategic assets. That is the foundation for the proposed hypotheses and proposed conceptual model presented in this paper for testing RBV's main prescription. We also discuss the practical, theoretical and empirical implications of this paper and make suggestions regarding empirical testing.
ISSN:1055-3185
2576-0785
DOI:10.1108/eb028874