Constructing competitive advantage: The role of firm-constituent interactions

• 成果类型: Review
• 署名作者: Rindova, VP; Fombrun, CJ
• 署名单位: New York University; University of Washington; University of Washington Seattle
• 刊物名称: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0143-2095
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0266(199908)20:8<691::AID-SMJ48>3.0.CO;2-1
• 发表日期: 1999
• 页码: 691-710
• 关键词: COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE; industry paradigms; corporate image and reputation; resource flows; COMPETITIVE DYNAMICS

摘要

Current models of competitive advantage emphasize economic factors as explanations for a firm's success bur ignore sociocognitive factors. This paper integrates economic and cognitive perspectives, and shows how firms and constituents jointly construct the environments in which firms compete. We argue that competitive advantage is a systemic outcome that develops as firms and constituents participate in six processes that entail, not only use and exchange of resources, but also communication about and interpretations of those exchanges. The interpretations that firms and constituents make of competitive interactions affect decisions about how to exchange and use resources. As interpretations and evaluations of a given firm fluctuate, so do the resources the firm has access to and its competitive advantage in the marketplace. The actions and interpretations of constituents and rivals produce the shifting terrain on which competition unfolds. We illustrate these dynamics with a discussion of IBM's changing competitive advantage in the computer industry in the 1980s. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.