Where do resources come from? The role of idiosyncratic situations

• 成果类型: Review
• 署名作者: Ahuja, G; Katila, R
• 署名单位: University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; Stanford University
• 刊物名称: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0143-2095
• DOI: 10.1002/smj.401
• 发表日期: 2004
• 页码: 887-907
• 关键词: innovation; RESOURCES; science; geographic boundaries

摘要

In this paper, we examine the emergence of resources. Our analysis of technological capability acquisition by global U.S.-based chemical firms shows that the emergence of resources is inherently evolutionary. We find that path-creating search that generates resource heterogeneity is a response to idiosyncratic situations faced by firms in their local searches. Two such idiosyncratic situations- technology exhaustion and expansion beyond national markets-trigger firms in our sample to create unique innovation search paths. We also find that along a given path firms experiment in order to find the correct investment-in fact, some organizations seem to take a step backward for two steps forward-further demonstrating the evolutionary nature of the resource creation process. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.