The persistence of knowledge-based advantage: An empirical test for product performance and technological knowledge

• 成果类型: Review
• 署名作者: McEvily, SK; Chakravarthy, B
• 署名单位: Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); University of Pittsburgh; International Institute for Management Development (IMD)
• 刊物名称: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0143-2095
• DOI: 10.1002/smj.223
• 发表日期: 2002
• 页码: 285-305
• 关键词: knowledge; RESOURCE-BASED THEORY; product imitation; sustainable advantage; Technological innovation

摘要

Resource-based theory maintains that intrinsic characteristics of resources and capabilities, such as their tacitness, complexity, and specificity, prevent imitation and thereby prolong exceptional performance. There is little direct evidence to verify these claims, yet a substantial literature encourages firms to formulate competitive strategies around resources with these attributes. Further, work outside the resource-based tradition suggests that these attributes can slow innovation, and it is not clear when this effect outweighs the benefits of inimitability. This paper seeks to clarify, whether and how the complexity, tacitness, and specificity of a firms knowledge affect the persistence of its performance advantages. We find that the complexity and tacitness of technological knowledge are useful for defending a firm's major product improvements from imitation, but not for protecting its minor improvements. The design specificity of technological knowledge delayed imitation of minor improvements in this study. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.