Publications
Publications
- Strategic Management Journal
Where Do Resources Come from? The Role of Idiosyncratic Situations
By: Gautam Ahuja and Riitta Katila
Abstract
In this paper, we examine the emergence of resources. Our analysis of technological capability acquisition by global U.S.-based chemical firms shows that the emergence of resources is inherently evolutionary. We find that path-creating search that generates resource heterogeneity is a response to idiosyncratic situations faced by firms in their local searches. Two such idiosyncratic situations—technology exhaustion and expansion beyond national markets—trigger firms in our sample to create unique innovation search paths. We also find that along a given path firms experiment in order to find the correct investment—in fact, some organizations seem to take a step backward for two steps forward—further demonstrating the evolutionary nature of the resource creation process.
Keywords
Citation
Ahuja, Gautam, and Riitta Katila. "Where Do Resources Come from? The Role of Idiosyncratic Situations." Special Issue on The Global Acquisition, Leverage, and Protection of Technological Competencies. Strategic Management Journal 25, nos. 8-9 (August–September 2004): 887–907.