The pendulum swings again: critical notes on the resource-based view

Abstract

Research on organizational strategy can be compared to a pendulum that swings back and forth between the inside and the outside of the firm. During the brief history of strategy as an autonomous discipline, this hypothetical pendulum has oscillated completely from the inside of the organization, all the way to the external environment, and back to the firm’s core. This last swing occurred when the Resource-Based View (RBV) shifted the focus of strategic research from an environmental industrycentered perspective to a firm-centered one. Despite its evident influence on much of the strategic literature, and even though it has been the foundation for some of the most relevant studies on strategy, the RBV has probably raised more questions than it has provided answers for practicing managers. Through a review of extant literature, is identified a critical overview of the RBV that assesses its possible limitations and virtues in the context of present-day academic and management trends.