IJPDLM 38,5
374
Traditionally, the field of strategic management has analyzed an organization’s external opportunities and threats (Ansoff, 1965; Porter, 1980, 1985) with the belief that internal organizational resources are homogeneous and any existing resource heterogeneity within an industry will be short lived (Porter, 1981). The resource-based view (Penrose, 1959; Rumelt, 1984; Wernerfelt, 1984) challenges these assumptions and posits that: . strategic resources within an industry may be heterogeneous across firms; and . these resources may not be mobile, and as a result this resource heterogeneity may be long lasting (Barney, 1991). Hence, the resource-based view suggests that a firm may achieve economic sustainability by effectively employing its resources. Barney (1991, p. 101) defines firm resources to include: [. . .] all assets, capabilities, organizational processes, firm attributes, information, knowledge, etc. controlled by a firm that enable the firm to conceive of and implement strategies that improve its efficiency and effectiveness.
Some researchers have focused on knowledge as a resource, which includes the ability of organizations to effectively learn and to implement changes based on what they have learned (Garvin, 1993). Such organizational learning occurs when knowledge is accumulated over time and learned by an organization’s members (March, 1991). This knowledge is stored by organizations not only in their procedures and rules, but also in their less formal norms and social and communication patterns (Barney, 1991; March, 1991). These knowledge and human capital resources (Becker, 1964) consist of training, as well as experience, social relationships, and the insights of managers and workers in an organization (Barney, 1991). Researchers have shown that a learning organization, in concert with a marketing orientation, can lead to competitive advantage (Moorman and Miner, 1997; Sinkula et al., 1997; Slater and Narver, 1995). The resource and knowledge-based views can be expanded to the resources of a supply chain (Gulati, 1999). In fact, while supply chains are external to an organization they are in many ways less transparent and more difficult to imitate. Learning that occurs between buyers and suppliers concerning environmental and social activities such as working with suppliers to commit to waste reduction goals and developing capable minority business enterprise suppliers takes time, but such learning can have a strong positive influence on supplier performance and reduced operating costs in supply chain relationships (Carter, 2005). Supply chains which integrate social and environmental resources may also be more difficult to replicate, particularly if suppliers devote asset-specific investments to engage in the design for disassembly and reuse activities of their customers (Carter and Carter, 1998) or share rich information and develop higher levels of trust associated with the “embedded ties” (Gulati, 1999, p. 400) of minority supplier development activities (Krause et al., 1999). This leads to the next proposition: P3.
Supply chains which integrate social and environmental resources and knowledge may be more difficult to imitate, thus leading to economic sustainability.