Assessing the Relative Importance of Tangible and Intangible Resources: Empirical Results from the Forest Industry

The importance of a diverse resource base to competitiveness of firms has been emphasized in resource-based view (RBV) literature and empirical studies done on various industries. Despite this emphasis, resource assessment methodologies within the RBV framework have been seldom approached, and the r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forest science 2008-12, Vol.54 (6), p.607-616
Main Authors: Lähtinen, Katja, Haara, Arto, Leskinen, Pekka, Toppinen, Anne
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
business management
competitiveness
decision making
Economic models
Financial statement analysis
Forests
Industry analysis
Interest groups
Likert scale
Manufacturing
multicriteria decision analysis
Production costs
resource-based view
sawmilling industry
sawmills
statistical models
Strategic management
Wood products
Woodworking
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Summary:The importance of a diverse resource base to competitiveness of firms has been emphasized in resource-based view (RBV) literature and empirical studies done on various industries. Despite this emphasis, resource assessment methodologies within the RBV framework have been seldom approached, and the relative importance of different resources for business operations is not well understood. The data of the study were collected among large- and medium-sized sawmills within the Finnish forest industry. The objective of this study was to assess within the RBV framework the importance of tangible and intangible resources in business operations of sawmills. This was accomplished by introducing a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) method suitable for practical resource assessment. According to the results, personnel, managerial, raw material, and financial resources were the most crucial for sawmills. In the future, applying the MCDA to resource assessments could be combined, e.g., with a financial statement analysis to evaluate the effects of resource usage decisions on business performance.
ISSN:0015-749X
1938-3738
DOI:10.1093/forestscience/54.6.607