The resource-based view can be positioned relative to at least three theoretical traditions: SCP-based theories of industry determinants of firm performance, neo-classical microeconomics, and evolutionary economics. In the 1991 article, only the first of these ways of positioning the resourcebased view is explored. This article briefly discusses some of the implications of positioning the resource-based view relative to these other two literatures; it also discusses some of the empirical implications of each of these different resource-based theories.

The companies’ increased power also implies increased responsibility and new demands from the society and its inhabitants, and this responsibility of the corporations can be termed Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR. The core of the thesis concerns how a MNC can gain a competitive advantage through undertaking CSR in South East Asia. To operate in a prosperous way a company must gain recognition and acceptance, or in terms of the institutional network approach; legitimacy, from all its key stakeholders and the society in general, which is conducted through finding a harmony between the internal and external environments. The thesis consequently investigates the institutional settings of the internal and external environments of SKF Nilai in Malaysia, which functions as a case company, and the so-called matching strategies the company has used in order to harmonise the institutional settings. This paper further explores the implications and the actual benefits that evolve during the process of CSR, both at subsidiary and Group level.

In conclusion, certain requirements, both internally and externally, constitute the base on which the mother company and the subsidiaries rest. This foundation is necessary in order to develop the correct strategies for establishing and sustaining a competitive advantage through CSR, and includes supportive culture, competent management and supportive organisational structure.

This study examines the drivers of competitive advantage within the hospital industry. Specifically,
we examine both the direct and joint effects of market structure, firm-level competencies, and inter organizational relationships on organizational performance. The results of this approach indicated that managers, through their strategic actions related to the capabilities and relationships they develop and deploy, can establish advantageous competitive positions and influence the negative effects of market structure by developing important strategic competencies.

The six sigma methodology aims to reduce the number of mistakes/defects in a manufacturing process and hence the manufacturing costs. Six sigma is the ultimate measure of quality. As firms improve their processes, and move towards the elusive six sigma, they often need to re-design the products, process and services to “design-out” defects and design-in quality. Describes the underlying statistical concepts behind the six sigma methodology and outlines the process of moving towards the realisation of six sigma quality.

This paper focuses on dynamic capabilities and, more generally, the resource-based view of the firm. We argue that dynamic capabilities are a set of specific and identifiable processes such as product development, strategic decision making, and alliancing. They are neither vague nor tautological. Although dynamic capabilities are idiosyncratic in their details and path dependent in their emergence, they have significant commonalities across firms (popularly termed ‘best practice’). This suggests that they are more homogeneous, fungible, equifinal, and substitutable than is usually assumed. In moderately dynamic markets, dynamic capabilities resemble the traditional conception of routines. They are detailed, analytic, stable processes with predictable outcomes. In contrast, in high-velocity markets, they are simple, highly experiential and fragile processes with unpredictable outcomes. Finally, well-known learning mechanisms guide the evolution of dynamic capabilities. In moderately dynamic markets, the evolutionary emphasis is on variation. In high-velocity markets, it is on selection. At the level of RBV, we conclude that traditional RBV misidentifies the locus of long-term competitive advantage in dynamic markets, overemphasizes the strategic logic of leverage, and reaches a boundary condition in high-velocity markets.

performance, and empirical research investigates competitive advantage and describes how it operates. But as a performance hypothesis, competitive advantage has received surprisingly little formal justification, particularly in light of its centrality in strategy research and practice. As it happens, the core hypothesis—that competitive advantage produces sustained superior performance— finds little support in formal deductive or inductive inference, and the leading theories of competitive advantage incorporate refutation barriers that preclude meaningful empirical tests. This article explores the logical and philosophical foundations of the competitive advantage hypothesis, locating its philosophical foundations in the epistemologies of Bayesian induction, abductive inference and an instrumentalist, pragmatic philosophy of science.