A property rights theory of competitive advantage

摘要

Research Summary: This article proposes a formal organizational economics approach to strategic management. Using a Property Rights Theory (PRT) framework, it rationalizes and provides a constructive contribution to two of the main strategy theories: the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Porter Generic Strategies (PGS). The article shows that the welfare maximizing PRT conditions that characterize the existence and boundaries of a firm parallel both the RBV and Porter conditions for a sustainable competitive advantage, and provides a formal rationalization of Barney's categorization of resources and Porter's generic strategies. The article reveals some underexplored aspects of current informal theories, and extends their scope with the integration of strategic networks of complementors and social welfare considerations, opening up new avenues for research.