Theoretical foundation: The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm

Regarding resources and products as two sides of the same coin (Wernerfelt 1984), the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm is one of the dominant perspectives in strategic management (Newbert 2007). At its core, the RBV states that the resources or the bundles of resources a company possesses are the basis for achieving competitive advantage (cf. Barney 1986, 1991; Conner 1991; Peteraf 1993; Wernerfelt 1984). Since its introduction, the RBV has become one of the most widely accepted theoretical perspectives in the strategic management field as a framework for explaining the conditions under which a firm may gain a sustained competitive advantage (Armstrong and Shimizu 2007).