Download This PaperResource Origins and Search
Strategic Management Journal
20 Pages Posted: 2 Apr 2020 Last revised: 20 Dec 2021
Date Written: September 30, 2021
Abstract
The search for new resources is costly and difficult within the resource-based view. Because search is costly, a common prescription is for firms to focus on their endowments—the resources they already possess. However, is there a way for firms to somehow find value amongst the “vast reservoirs” of external resources? We review existing forms of resource search and then suggest an alternative. Exten- ding arguments from biology, we develop the idea of a firm-specific search image and highlight how search images can reveal resources not obvious to others. The search image notion speaks to how firms might uniquely identify dormant resources, even in seemingly efficient factor markets. We conclude with a discussion of how our arguments pertain to the resource-based view and the origins of resources.
Keywords: resource-based view, factor markets, entrepreneurship, beliefs, adjacent possible, strategy
JEL Classification: L23, L14, L22, D20, D21, D22, D51, D52, D92, K1, M2, O33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Todd R. Zenger
University of Utah ( email )
David Eccles School of Business
1655 East Campus Center Drive
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
United States
801 585-3981 (Phone)
801 581-7939 (Fax)