Relevance of a resource-based view to strategic management in a global environment?

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Over the past decade or so, there have been a large and diverse collection of contributions in the areas of economics and strategic management that seek to either refine the concept of the RBV or uses it as a framework for tackling conceptual and empirical questions. Consequently, the basic propositions of the RBV have become increasingly well delineated. In short, the principal contribution of the resource-based view of the firm to date has been as a theory of competitive advantage. Its basic logic is a relatively simple one. It starts with the assumption that the desired outcome of managerial effort within the firm is a sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). Achieving a SCA allows the firm to earn economic rents or above-average returns. In turn, this focuses attention on how firms achieve and sustain advantages. The resource-based view contends that the answer to this question lies in the possession of certain key resources, that is, resources that have characteristics such as value, barriers to duplication and appropriability. A SCA can be obtained if the firm effectively deploys these resources in its product-markets. Therefore, the RBV emphasizes strategic choice, charging the firm's management with the important tasks of identifying, developing and deploying key resources to maximize returns.

The pursuit of Sustainable Competitive Advantage is an idea that is at the heart of much of the strategic management and marketing literature. Gaining a competitive advantage through the provision of greater value to customers can be expected to lead to superior performance measured in conventional terms such as market-based performance (e.g., market share, customer satisfaction) and financial-based performance has argued that market-share and profitability are both outcomes of the efforts by firm's secure cost and differentiation advantages. Extant marketing literature emphasizes a link between the delivery of value to customers and levels of customer satisfaction ...