TY - JOUR
T1 - Scanning dynamic competitive landscapes
T2 - A market-based and resource-based framework
AU - Peteraf, Margaret A.
AU - Bergen, Mark E.
PY - 2003/10
Y1 - 2003/10
N2 - Heterogeneity among rivals implies that each firm faces a unique competitive set, despite overlapping market domains. This suggests the utility of a firm-level approach to competitor identification and analysis, particularly under dynamic environmental conditions. We take such an approach in developing a market-based and resource-based framework for scanning complex competitive fields. By facilitating a search for functional similarities among products and resources, the framework reveals relevant commonalities in an otherwise heterogeneous competitive set. Beyond its practical contribution, the paper also advances resource-based theory as a theory of competitive advantage. Most notably, we show that resource substitution conditions not only the sustainability of a competitive advantage, but the attainment of competitive advantage as well. With equifinality among resources of different types, the rareness condition for even temporary competitive advantage must include resource substitutes. It is not rareness in terms of resource type that matters, but rareness in terms of resource functionality.
AB - Heterogeneity among rivals implies that each firm faces a unique competitive set, despite overlapping market domains. This suggests the utility of a firm-level approach to competitor identification and analysis, particularly under dynamic environmental conditions. We take such an approach in developing a market-based and resource-based framework for scanning complex competitive fields. By facilitating a search for functional similarities among products and resources, the framework reveals relevant commonalities in an otherwise heterogeneous competitive set. Beyond its practical contribution, the paper also advances resource-based theory as a theory of competitive advantage. Most notably, we show that resource substitution conditions not only the sustainability of a competitive advantage, but the attainment of competitive advantage as well. With equifinality among resources of different types, the rareness condition for even temporary competitive advantage must include resource substitutes. It is not rareness in terms of resource type that matters, but rareness in terms of resource functionality.
KW - Competitive advantage
KW - Competitor identification
KW - Resource-based theory
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U2 - 10.1002/smj.325
DO - 10.1002/smj.325
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0141569047
SN - 0143-2095
VL - 24
SP - 1027
EP - 1041
JO - Strategic Management Journal
JF - Strategic Management Journal
IS - 10 SPEC ISS.
ER -