| dc.description.abstract | The field of strategy has been evolving in its quest for better answers about firm performance. One actual and relevant answer relies on the Resource-Based View (RBV). One may agree with the RBV claim that firms differ and internal resources matter. In this work is argued that not exclusively internal resources are important, but also their relation with external resources. Firms environment differ as well as its external resources. This enhanced view asks to include into the scene external resources related to the firm. The inclusion of external resources might be important per se, but more important is to explore the impact of the firm's external and internal IX resources on the emergence of value in the firm and by extension on the explanation of the firm's performance. How the value is created? This is an inductive study of five firms, two in the airline industry two in the frozen food industry and one in the cement industry. Based on the research question, two stages were found: The first stage named forge stage, and a second stage called cookie cutting. The first stage was named as forge stage, because several alternatives configurations of internal and external resources are tried, like one experiment after other. Strategizing is observed in form of experimentation. If a successful configuration emerges -a configuration capable to deliver value- from the interaction of the firm's resources and the environment's resources, impressive results can be observed. From firms that were almost bankrupted to flourishing and healthy firms. In the first stage, in the early days of the firm, drastic changes were observed. These changes were possible because of its small size and its lack of path dependence. In this work, it was peculiar that the two followers -that ex ante had an idea about what the configuration of the firm might be did not survive. Those firms did not have a forge period of experimentation and because the changing configuration, a valuable configuration was not found, soon those firms filed for bankruptcy. Surprisingly it was found that firms in the second stage, firms do not alter the main way of creating value. It was a trend to no respond anymore to its environment, as soon as the configuration of resources had emerged in the first stage, it is frozen. If x it is successful the emergent configuration, it could face different environments and still keep delivering value, sometimes in settings wide different from their original. This finding challenge the traditional idea of that the firm keeps its adaptability. The second stage, the cookie cutting stage, the firm expands its operations, no more drastic changes are tried; this stable configuration makes economizing the most valuable strategy where the reduction of waste prevails. | |
