Natura e determinanti del vantaggio competitivo sostenibile nella prospettiva resource-based: alcune riflessioni critiche

Building on the resource-based view, a significant number of research works focuses on the characteristics of firm resources that generate sustainable competitive advantages. Within this ever growing stream of literature, various terms and constructs have been proposed, resulting in different, and sometimes confusing, theoretical frameworks. Through a critical literature review, this paper examines the theoretical propositions regarding the resourcebased view of competitive advantage and aims to contribute to a deeper analysis of its main underlying constructs. Moving from the fundamental assumption that resources are heterogeneously distributed across firms, this study develops a framework to highlight the determinants and the outcomes of such heterogeneity and analyzes the causal relationships between attributes of firm resources and competitive advantage. In addition, methodological issues concerning the analysis of sources of competitive advantages from a resource-based perspective are discussed. The article concludes by describing the emerging streams of research and their potential for further investigations about this research topic.