Resources in academic discourse: An empirical investigation of management journals
Abstract: Commonly shared
conceptualizations of resources are scant in academic management research which
strikes as somewhat peculiar since resources and their allocation thereof have
long been recognised to be at the heart of the competitive advantage and performance
of a firm. The research literature considering resources as basis for
competitive advantages has further faced contemporary criticism for the
vagueness of the fundamental definition of the resource concept. Therefore,
this paper empirically studies the representation of resource concept in
academic management research literature. The paper reports results on the state
of conceptualisations of organisations’ resources found in two distinct sources
of research literature, namely ScienceDirect’s database and ISI’s top
management journals, resulting in two data sets of a total of 457 articles. The
findings illustrate the two-dimensional conceptual farrago in the
conceptualisations; on the definitions of the resource concept itself and on
the internal structure and the level of analysis when the concept is
considered. In addition, the paper sheds light on the temporal evolution of the
discourse explicitly considering resources. Finally, the paper considers
several remedies for these deficiencies in order both to aid future theory
development in management studies and to help increase the practical impact of
the research in assisting managerial decision-making.
Author: Marko Seppänen, Saku
Mäkinen
Journal Code: jptindustrigg100013
