The case for a process theory of resource accumulation and deployment

摘要

The RBV blurs the distinction between resources and the administration that enables their accumulation and deployment. I outlined some principles for a process theory that bridges this gap in the literature, calling for distinguishing resource flows from stocks and identifying mechanisms that enable their storage, transfer, and manipulation. Such process theory can generate insights that cannot be derived from existing theory. For example, Dierickx and Cool (1989) claim that a firm can influence resource accumulation only by manipulating resource flows. In turn, I reveal that this can be also achieved by modifying the capacities of resource repositories and resource-transfer channels. By distinguishing resources from the channels that serve for their transfer or from repositories that accommodate them, I depart from traditional RBV research, which has assumed fixed resource properties.