RBV / Positional view / Dynamic capabilities

Question 1

Generic strategies

Answer 1

Porter (**)

• Cost / Differentiation, in order to position oneself in the market.

Question 2

5 Forces

Answer 2

Porter (1985)

Threat of new entrants
Threat of Substitutes
Buyer power
Supplier power
Competition between firms in the market

Question 3

Resource based view

Answer 3

Peteraf

Question 4

Necessary conditions for a resource to lead to SCA

Answer 4

Barney:

Rare, Valuable, Perfectly Inimitable & Unsubstitutable

Question 5

Industry lifecycle

Answer 5

Johnson et al.

Introduction -> Growth -> Shake-out -> Maturity -> Decline

Question 6

Competitive advantage definition

Answer 6

Porter

Providing comparable buyer value more efficiently than competitors
Performing activities at a similar cost but in unique ways that increase buyer value.

Question 7

competitive advantage is due to luck

Answer 7

Rumelt

-One lucky break can put someone in a sustained competitive advantage.

Question 8

Factor markets leading to sca

Answer 8

Barney (1986)

• Imperfectly competitive strategic factor markets will lead to SCA, because firms can acquire superior resources

Question 9

Asset stock accumulation

Answer 9

Dierickx & Cool

• One’s asset stock will be built up over time (path dependency), and it’s imitability will determine the extent to which a firm has competitive advantage.

Question 10

RBV criticism: value if tautological

Answer 10

Spender & Groen (2010)

• Definition of value is tautological, making the theory useless.
• A resource is anything that leads to competitive advantage….. so it’s true by definition, so it’s not a theory

Question 11

Dynamic Capabilities

Answer 11

Teece et al. (1997)

• Dynamic resources are capabilities which generate additional opportunities over time: capacity for learning and communicative skills for example.

Question 12

core competencies

Answer 12

Prahalad & Hamel

A core competency must fulfill the following three criteria

1) Provides access to a wide variety of markets
2) Makes significant contribution to customer benefits of the end product
3) Difficult to imitate by competitors

Canon - Lazer & Lens technology
Dunlop - Rubber

Question 13

Mixing rbv and positional view

Answer 13

Barnett (2006)

both rbv and positional views are required to derive maximum competitive advantage.

Question 14

Pharmaceutical empiricals

Answer 14

Cool & Schendel (1988)

• Significant performance differences between US Pharmaceutical firms operating int he same segment, implying difference in profitability is due to resource based view

Question 15

MArket share argument

Answer 15

Buzzell, Gale & Sultan

There is a positive relationship between ROI and market share, so, the higher one’s market share, the greater their capacity to secure profit.

Christensen

Experience curve
With a 70% market share, IBM earned 95% of the mainframe computer industries profits