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The resource-based view: A review and assessment of its critiques

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  • Kraaijenbrink, Jeroen
  • Spender, JC
  • Groen, Aard

Abstract

The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm has been around for over twenty years - during which time it has been both widely taken up and subjected to considerable criticism. The authors review and assess the principal critiques evident in the literature, arguing they fall into eight categories. They conclude the RBV’s core message can withstand criticism from five of these quite well provided the RBV’s variables, boundaries and applicability are adequately specified. Three critiques that cannot be readily dismissed call for further theorizing and research. They arise from the indeterminate nature of two of the RBV's basic concepts – resource and value – and the narrow conceptualization of a firm's competitive advantage. The authors feel the RBV community has clung to an inappropriately narrow neo-classical economic rationality, thereby diminishing its opportunities for progress. Their suggestions may assist with developing the RBV into a more viable theory of competitive advantage, especially if it is moved into a genuinely dynamic framework.

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  • Kraaijenbrink, Jeroen & Spender, JC & Groen, Aard, 2009. "The resource-based view: A review and assessment of its critiques," MPRA Paper 21442, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:21442
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    Keywords

    resource-based view; sustained competitive advantage; Austrian economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B21 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Microeconomics
    • D20 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - General
    • B53 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Austrian

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