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The resource-based view of diversification success: conceptual issues, methodological flaws, and future directions

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Abstract

After more than 20 years of empirical research, the resource-based view of the multibusiness firm has emerged as a promising paradigm for explaining diversification success—one of the most investigated research questions within the field of strategic management. However, because various dimensions of resource-relatedness, synergistic effects, and moderating influences are investigated at diverse levels of analysis, the findings are very fragmented. Our review and critical assessment of the research reveals a number of conceptual issues and methodological flaws that had already constrained heavily traditional diversification research. Consequently, we suggest promising directions for future research efforts that can put this important empirical application of the resource-based view of the firm on safer ground.

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Notes

  1. We thank an anonymous reviewer for this suggestion.

  2. What Wan et al. (2011) discuss under their headline of ‘moderators of corporate diversification’ is distant from our debate in this section. They do not discuss moderators in the prevailing sense of factors that influence the relation between business relatedness and diversification success. Instead, they conduct a more conceptual discussion on factors that influence a firm’s diversification behavior in general.

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  1. Institute of Technology and Management, Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623, Berlin, Germany

    Stefan Hauschild & Dodo zu Knyphausen-Aufseß

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Hauschild, S., Knyphausen-Aufseß, D.z. The resource-based view of diversification success: conceptual issues, methodological flaws, and future directions. Rev Manag Sci 7, 327–363 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-012-0082-0

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