Introduction

Abstract

The competence-based perspective shares with the resource-based view the notion of the fundamental importance of an organization's resources in its competitive outcomes.¹ In his paper “Probing into the nature of resources: Sustainable advantages and appropriable rents in the U.S. motion picture industry,” Jamal Shamsie investigates the sustainability of the competitive advantages that strategically important resources can bring to a firm, as well as the appropriability of the economic profits (rents) that can be derived from the uses of resources. To this end, the paper develops a classification of resource types based on the nature of a resource's ownership and control. Shamsie studies the U.S. motion picture industry to assess the degree of sustainable advantages and appropriable rents that can be generated by three types of resources: contracted resources, owned resources, and embedded resources. His findings suggest that in the subject industry both sustainability and appropriability are likely to be low for contracted resources such as top-rated stars and directors, while the greatest potential for sustainability and appropriability attach to embedded resources that accumulate firm-specific knowledge and learning in the development and marketing of various film genres.

Citation

Sanchez, R. and Heene, A. (2005), "Introduction", Sanchez, R. and Heene, A. (Ed.) Competence Perspectives on Resources, Stakeholders and Renewal (Advances in Applied Business Strategy, Vol. 9), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. xi-xix. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-6826(05)09016-5