Beyond the Management View: A Ressource-Centered Socio-Economic Perspective

In the past fifteen years, the resource based view has experienced enormous popularity and support. To the same extent that it has become established as the dominating approach in management science, its shortcomings are becoming more and more apparent. In this essay, we discuss different schools of the RBV and some of their most significant shortcomings. We believe that such shortcomings are the result of a blurred and insufficient theoretical basis. While the static versions of the RBV follow the neo-classical equilibrium model too closely, the dynamic approaches (competence-based view, capability approach) mix incommensurable elements of theory. To allow improved reasoning and possibly the integration of resource-oriented approaches we suggest socio-economics. Socio-economics offers a firm ground for overcoming the discussed weaknesses of RBV and provides tie-in points for the resource concepts of other disciplines. We thus plead for a resource-oriented socio-economic perspective which goes beyond a narrow management perspective and takes into account the social, cultural and political embeddedness of the firm.