Many roads lead to Rome: Implications of geographic scope as a source of isolating mechanisms

Studies examining the competitive implications of geographic scope have largely focused on creating competitive advantage. In an attempt to investigate a less-illuminated role of geographic scope – that of sustaining competitive advantage – this paper investigates the sources of and relationships among the causal factors leading to creation of isolating mechanisms or barriers to imitation. This paper first distinguishes two sources of causal factors linked to the creation of isolating mechanisms, intrinsic characteristics of knowledge, and geographic scope of knowledge acquisition, and then investigates the relationships among the causal factors from the two sources. Employing the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis method, this paper examines equifinality and functional equivalence of causal factors from the two sources. Empirical analyses with United States Patent and Trademark Office patent data of the semiconductor industry corroborate the main thesis of the paper that multiple paths can lead to the creation of isolating mechanisms and, in these paths, causal factors from the two sources of isolating mechanisms can be functionally equivalent. The results also provide managerial implications that firms with different sets of resources and capabilities can implement different types of isolating strategies to sustain their competitive advantage.