IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/stratm/v24y2003i10p977-990.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The economics of strategic opportunity

Author

Listed:
  • Jerker Denrell
  • Christina Fang
  • Sidney G. Winter

Abstract

As emphasized by Barney (1986), any explanation of superior profitability must account for why the resources supporting such profitability could have been acquired for a price below their rent‐generating capacity. Building upon the literature in economics on coordination failures and incomplete markets, we suggest a framework for analyzing such strategic factor market inefficiencies. Our point of departure is that a strategic opportunity exists whenever prices fail to reflect the value of a resource's best use. This paper examines the challenges of imputing a resource's value in the absence of explicit price guidance and suggests the likely characteristics of strategic opportunities. Our framework also suggests that the discovery of strategic opportunity is often a matter of ‘serendipity’ and access to relevant idiosyncratic resources. This latter observation provides prescriptive advice, although the analysis also explains why more detailed guidance has to be firm specific. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Jerker Denrell & Christina Fang & Sidney G. Winter, 2003. "The economics of strategic opportunity," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(10), pages 977-990, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:stratm:v:24:y:2003:i:10:p:977-990
    DOI: 10.1002/smj.341
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.341
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/smj.341?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Makowski, Louis & Ostroy, Joseph M, 1995. "Appropriation and Efficiency: A Revision of the First Theorem of Welfare Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(4), pages 808-827, September.
    2. Dixit, Avinash, 1980. "The Role of Investment in Entry-Deterrence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(357), pages 95-106, March.
    3. Jerker Denrell & James G. March, 2001. "Adaptation as Information Restriction: The Hot Stove Effect," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(5), pages 523-538, October.
    4. Shleifer, Andrei, 2000. "Inefficient Markets: An Introduction to Behavioral Finance," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198292272, Decembrie.
    5. Hirshleifer, Jack, 1971. "The Private and Social Value of Information and the Reward to Inventive Activity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(4), pages 561-574, September.
    6. Paul J. H. Schoemaker, 1990. "Strategy, Complexity, and Economic Rent," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(10), pages 1178-1192, October.
    7. Ingemar Dierickx & Karel Cool, 1989. "Asset Stock Accumulation and Sustainability of Competitive Advantage," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(12), pages 1504-1511, December.
    8. Henry Mintzberg, 1978. "Patterns in Strategy Formation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(9), pages 934-948, May.
    9. Constance E. Helfat & Marvin B. Lieberman, 2002. "The birth of capabilities: market entry and the importance of pre-history," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 11(4), pages 725-760, August.
    10. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    11. Jay B. Barney, 1989. "Asset Stocks and Sustained Competitive Advantage: A Comment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(12), pages 1511-1513, December.
    12. Kiminiori Matsuyama, 1995. "Economic Development as Coordination Problems," Discussion Papers 1123, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    13. Jay B. Barney, 1986. "Strategic Factor Markets: Expectations, Luck, and Business Strategy," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(10), pages 1231-1241, October.
    14. Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1996. "Whither Socialism?," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262691825, December.
    15. Richard Makadok & Jay B. Barney, 2001. "Strategic Factor Market Intelligence: An Application of Information Economics to Strategy Formulation and Competitor Intelligence," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(12), pages 1621-1638, December.
    16. Steven Klepper & Kenneth L. Simons, 2000. "Dominance by birthright: entry of prior radio producers and competitive ramifications in the U.S. television receiver industry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(10‐11), pages 997-1016, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Corinne A. Coen & Catherine A. Maritan, 2011. "Investing in Capabilities: The Dynamics of Resource Allocation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 99-117, February.
    2. Adegbesan, Tunji, 2007. "Strategic factor markets: Bargaining, scarcity, and resource complementarity," IESE Research Papers D/666, IESE Business School.
    3. Giovanni Gavetti, 2012. "PERSPECTIVE—Toward a Behavioral Theory of Strategy," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 267-285, February.
    4. Nicolaï Foss & Nils Stieglitz, 2012. "Modern Resource-based Theory(ies)," Chapters, in: Michael Dietrich & Jackie Krafft (ed.), Handbook on the Economics and Theory of the Firm, chapter 20, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Timsit, Jean-Philippe & Castiaux, Annick & Truong, Yann & Athaide, Gerard A. & Klink, Richard R., 2015. "The effect of market-pull vs. resource-push orientation on performance when entering new markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(9), pages 2005-2014.
    6. Christian Geisler Asmussen, 2015. "Strategic factor markets, scale free resources, and economic performance: The impact of product market rivalry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(12), pages 1826-1844, December.
    7. Jaideep Anand & Raffaele Oriani & Roberto S. Vassolo, 2010. "Alliance Activity as a Dynamic Capability in the Face of a Discontinuous Technological Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(6), pages 1213-1232, December.
    8. Teppo Felin & Stuart Kauffman & Todd Zenger, 2023. "Resource origins and search," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(6), pages 1514-1533, June.
    9. Robert P. Garrett Jr. & Jeffrey G. Covin, 2015. "Internal Corporate Venture Operations Independence and Performance: A Knowledge–Based Perspective," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(4), pages 763-790, July.
    10. Iman Seoudi & Matthias Huehn & Bo Carlsson, 2008. "Penrose Revisited: A Re-Appraisal of the Resource Perspective," Working Papers 14, The German University in Cairo, Faculty of Management Technology.
    11. Wang, Chun-Ju & Wu, Lei-Yu, 2012. "Team member commitments and start-up competitiveness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(5), pages 708-715.
    12. David Gaddis Ross, 2012. "On Evaluation Costs in Strategic Factor Markets: The Implications for Competition and Organizational Design," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(4), pages 791-804, April.
    13. Richard J. Arend & Moren Lévesque, 2010. "Is the Resource-Based View a Practical Organizational Theory?," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(4), pages 913-930, August.
    14. Phebo D. Wibbens, 2023. "A formal framework for the RBV: Resource dynamics as a Markov process," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(6), pages 1562-1586, June.
    15. Mehmet Ali Köseoglu & John A. Parnell & Melissa Yan Yee Yick, 2021. "Identifying influential studies and maturity level in intellectual structure of fields: evidence from strategic management," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(2), pages 1271-1309, February.
    16. Olivier Chatain, 2014. "How do strategic factor markets respond to rivalry in the product market?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(13), pages 1952-1971, December.
    17. Giovanni. Gavetti & Daniel A. Levinthal, 2004. "50th Anniversay Article: The Strategy Field from the Perspective of Management Science: Divergent Strands and Possible Integration," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(10), pages 1309-1318, October.
    18. John C. Butler & Jovan Grahovac, 2012. "Learning, Imitation, and the Use of Knowledge: A Comparison of Markets, Hierarchies, and Teams," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(5), pages 1249-1263, October.
    19. Stefan Ulrich Radtke & Horst M. Schellhaaß, 2010. "Einfluss der Digitalisierung auf den Stellenwert von Senderechten als Kernressource von Fernsehsendern," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 62(5), pages 482-502, August.
    20. Kazeminia, Ali, 2021. "Unfolding the airbus’ strategic growth: A successful case," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 37(1).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:stratm:v:24:y:2003:i:10:p:977-990. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/0143-2095 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.