STRATEGIC RESOURCES - TRAITS, CONFIGURATIONS AND PATHS TO SUSTAINABLECOMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm holds that certain assets wi th certain characteristics will lead to sustainable competitive advant age. All the traits are required to be present to result in sustainabl e competitive advantage. Such a trait approach overlooks the dynamics of the creation of firm resources especially the strategically importa nt factors as identified by the resource based view theory. We propose that the resources are made up of factor networks which have specific interfactor and inter-resource relationships that result in the chara cteristic traits being evidenced. These strategic resource factor rela tionships include network type, available substitutes and cogency rela tionships (compensatory, enhancing and suppressing.) Specific configur ations that lead to high or very high support of sustainable competiti ve advantage are proposed. Twenty-two specific paths to sustainable co mpetitive advantage for a factor, contingent on resource factor traits and relationship configurations, are proposed. The implications, upon confirmation of these configurations, are discussed.