The resource-based view of the firm: Some stumbling-blocks on the road to understanding sustainable competitive advantage

The resource-based view of the firm (RBV) is an important, emerging theory of firm heterogeneity. It is well grounded in industrial economics and has benefited in its development from a multiplicity of contributions by management writers. But like any developing body of knowledge, it is not short of confusion, ambiguity and conceptual and empirical difficulties. This paper provides an integrated review of the resource-based view of the firm in an effort to eliminate much of the ambiguity caused by weak taxonomies and the inconsistent and conflicting use of terminology. It provides a detailed insight into the logic of the RBV and illuminates its contributions to the debate on the nature of competitive advantage. The paper then evaluates the status of some ongoing debates that are germane to our understanding of competitive advantage and outlines prospective directions for the development of the resource-based view.