Resources, capabilities, and performance heterogeneity

A common issue in strategic management research is competitive advantage and the search for sources of performance differences among firms. Traditionally, researchers drew from industrial organization perspectives, which examine the conditions where first-mover advantages are likely to exist, and evolutionary perspectives, which address factors that influence the variation, selection, and retention of organizations and capabilities. More recently, the resource-based view (RBV) emerged as the dominant perspective which advocates that performance differences are attributable to costly-to-imitate differences in resources and capabilities. However, this argument is difficult to establish theoretically and support empirically. Therefore, alternative explanations advocate (dynamic) capabilities as a source of interfirm performance differences, as well as the theoretical need to differentiate resources and capabilities. Yet, collectively, the strategy field still lacks a cohesive body of empirical studies providing clear and consistent evidence of the firm-level sources of performance differences. Accordingly, the purpose of this dissertation is to advance research on capabilities as sources of firm-level performance differences. I make this contribution through studying one of a firm\u27s largest capability expenditures, Information Technology (IT). In this context, scholars continue to question the appropriate role and use of IT in the firm, as well as the implications of IT-based capability for performance. Thus, this dissertation addresses major unresolved issues in both the Strategic Management and Management Information Systems literature by advancing an argument that IT-based capabilities can serve as sources of performance differences in certain contexts. Collectively, this dissertation consists of a multi-method, three essay approach which offers an in-depth examination of how differences in IT-based capabilities, and their heterogeneous usage by firms in different strategic and environmental contexts, can contribute to competitive advantage