ABSTRACT
This chapter is taken up with discussing, among other things, the sources of what has now become generally known as ‘the resource-based perspective on strategy’. It is well known that the RBP is conventionally traced back to the seminal, but for a long time neglected, contribution by Edith Penrose in The Theory of the Growth of the Firm. The resource-based analysis of (sustained) competitive advantage may be seen as starting out from two basic empirical generalisations, namely that there are systematic differences across firms in the extent to which they control resources that are necessary for implementing strategies, and that these differences are relatively stable. Diversification studies may arguably be where the resource-based approach has had its greatest impact. The commonly accepted theory of diversification, in both economics and strategy research, is roughly the resource-based theory.
