Family business is a typical organizational form around the world and dominates the economic landscape of many nations. Scholars propose that the reason why family businesses are different from non-family business because of resources that are distinctive to a firm as a result of the interactions between family, family members and business. The bundle of resources that have been theoretically developed within the resource-based view framework are identified as ¡§Familiness¡¨ of the firm. Familiness is considered as a source of competitive advantage to family firms, but some scholars believe that the resources are necessary but not sufficient to achieve a competitive advantage. Resources must also be managed and deployed effectively through capabilities. Marketing capabilities is one of the most important capabilities of a firm, there are many studies have pointed out that the marketing capabilities and business performance are significantly related. The purpose of this paper is to exam the relationships among the familiness of individual family firm and their marketing capabilities through the resource-based view framework. This paper conducted a convenience sampling questionnaire survey to collect data, using the members of "Taiwan Fastener Association", "Taiwan Watch & Clock Industrial Association¡¨, ¡§Taiwan Fluid Power Association", and the companies that National Sun Yat-sen University MBA¡¦s students work for as sample, issued 571 questionnaires, 134 valid questionnaires were retuned, the effective response rate is 23.5%. Descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, multivariate analysis and multiple regression analysis were used for data analysis and hypothesis testing. The results of this paper show that all of family human resource, family social resource and patiant financial resource have significantly positive correlation with marketing capabilities. The managers of family business can take advantage of such unique resources to strengthen marketing capabilities that create sustainable competitive advantage and achieve superior performance.

With rapid development of technology in industries and aggressive globalization competitiveness, business operation success from the past does not guarantee present and future success, and the competitive advantages of enterprises may vanish after time or environment differences. Promoting new products and process innovation have becoming the main strategies for enterprises, and they also become the key points of the existence of enterprises. Therefore, enterprises should intake technological innovation when formulating strategies, and concentrate on their core resources and capabilities. Through the integrations, the enterprises will be able to react and get the sustainable competitive advantages when changes from outside and inside the organizations occurred. This research is using the Resource-Based View as foundation, and the high technology manufacturers and enterprises in Taiwan as our research objects. Exploring the characteristics of enterprise inner resources, capabilities and the impacts on creating sustainable competitive advantages through the interactions and effects when enterprises engage planning their technological innovation strategies. The obtained data is adapted by Pearson correlation analysis and regression analysis. The research result is hopefully to be able to provide with the high technology manufacturers and enterprises in promoting the competitive advantages in business operation and decision application. The result of this research is that, the technological innovation strategy is indeed affected by core resources and capabilities. The different core resource contents and characteristics have remarkable effects on enterprises technological innovation strategies. This research result is corresponding with resource-strategy paradigm by the Resource-Based School. Technological innovation strategy has outstanding impact on the sustainable competitive advantages. Different types of technological innovation strategies have effects on innovation performances, which shows the importance of applying technological innovation strategy to enhance the competitive advantages. However, the core resource contents and characteristics do not show the direct impact on the sustainable competitive advantages. The core resources and capabilities of enterprises will have contribution to the sustainable competitive advantages by strategy formulation and implementation.

The Cheng Ching Lake is a reservoir. It functions not only as a water supplier, but also as a scenic spot. It used to be one of the top three scenic spots in Taiwan. However, it has gradually lost its competitiveness with environmental change. And its tourists has also decreased with year, which has resulted in deficits of earning and prosperity. This study probes into the competitive advantage of the Cheng Ching Lake scenic spot according to the Resource-Based Theory. The unique competitiveness of general enterprises comes from two complementary sources-- the resources and the competencies in the enterprises. Since it is easier for an enterprise to control and manage its resources and competencies, the two factors are more suitable being as references and indicators for a company to decide on its tactics of development. Therefore, an enterprise should make good use of its resources in advantage and even its core resources in order to make profits and maintain its substainable competitive advantage. This thesis adopted qualitative methods and conducted in-depth interviews with the administrator of the Cheng Ching Lake scenic spot, superiors in authorities concerned, scholars, and experts. After discussing with them the effects that tangible assets, intangible assets, human resources and capabilities have on competitive advantage, the results¡GThe core resource of the Cheng Ching Lake scenic spot is ¡§its water resource and ecology¡¨ that is unique, specific, and imperfectly imitable, which shape the Cheng Ching Lake¡¦s competitiveness. As for the core competence, the management ability, age, quality, professional training, adjustment ability of its employees lack in competitiveness, the Cheng Ching Lake scenic spot does not have core competence . Based on the above findings, this study gets some suggest to development strategies for the Cheng Ching Lake senic spot as follows: 1.Using the differentiation to separate the market. 2.Selecting a specific theme for further development. 3.Modifying after a whole plan, and to run the business with each section separated for different usage. 4.Adopting alliance strategy to promote its competitiveness. 5.Collecting cleaning fees from people doing morning exercise to compensate for the loss in profits.

As the growth of internet, the E-commerce has become a global business trend. Under this globalization of the e-economy, the international value chains, such as the division of labor, force the domestic enterprises such as manufacturing and service industries to face this great challenge in recent years. The reason why the information technology(IT) services industries are flourishing for past few years is due to they can provide a combination between professional knowledge and information technology for improving enterprises¡¦ international competiveness to gain excess-profit. However, the market in Taiwan is too limited to survive for those service providers. Under such highly competitive market, the services industries have made a drop in making profits. In order to sustain technological leadership to maintain a stable market place, how to integrate inter limited resources becomes a key factor to gain business improvement. This study will be the case for the study, the first industrial survey, a systematic insight into the company's resources, markets, technology, organizational structure and found that the company's strengths, weak, facing the threat of competition and opportunities for further growth. Organizational model and then explore the sale of better mode of change and corporate resources to business organizations, the impact of sales and marketing organizations before and after changes in sales performance for the effect of changes in sales organization, summed up the following conclusions: 1, The IT services industry sales organization designed based on strategic objectives and characteristics of its Selling Motion designed. 2, Sales organization of IT services industry transformation, the enterprise intangible resources of personnel and organizational skills that affect business sales organizations key to the success of the transformation factor. 3, Sales organization of IT services industry transformation, that need to design model according to their characteristics to be adjusted business performance assessment methods.

This thesis answers calls for fine-grained studies of product diversification, in this case, predominantly using the resource based view of the firm. The context is UK providers of banking services. The thesis has developed the concept of resource matching. Resource matching combines levels of: resource heterogeneity, resource similarity and difference, and the external environmental setting of the organisation with the business performance of product diversification. Resource matching significantly increases the limited conceptual underpinning of diversification RBV by adapting and developing concepts from single firm RBV literature. Two new research strategies were developed to gather data on multiple resources and external factors. One was unused due to access issues during the credit crunch. The other, which was used, utilised multiple sources of publicly available information both qualitative and quantitative. These conceptual and methodological developments offer a way to restart the research on the impact of product diversification on business performance. This research has stalled due to conflicting results and methodological issues. Twenty nine providers of banking services in the UK where examined: building societies; other providers of retail banking services; providers of investment banking services; and combined banks which offer both investment and retail banking services. This thesis found: varying amounts of resource heterogeneity, resource bundles can be constructed from publicly available external data, performance in diversification does not adhere to the previously posited curvilinear pattern but to one of the greater the product diversification the greater the business performance risk and reward, with rewards being both positive and negative, and finally the external environment does vary within the industry. The results on product diversification performance suggest of a new way of looking at product diversification which might reconcile the previous conflicting results. A modified version of the conceptual model of resource matching was developed to take account of the results. Opportunities for further work include; studying other industries and providers of banking services in other countries, refining the single industry fine grained research methods and further developing the resource matching model.

<p>This dissertation examines what drives firms' divestiture activity and how it impacts their performance. Divestitures is defined here as the sale, spin-off or liquidation of assets from an ongoing organization. This dissertation seeks to understand what drives firms' reconfiguration activities via divestitures, and in turn how the divestiture activity impacts the future performance in terms of survival and growth. The dissertation identifies differences in the performance of a firm relative to their prior performance as a driver for divestitures, as well as other financial constraints. Moreover, it shows that, counter-intuitively, divestitures are a tool for growth and helps strong firms continue to grow and helps them avoid becoming a target for acquisitions; whereas in the case of weak firms, divesting does not help them avoid shutting down. This dissertation argues that divestitures are tools firms use to reconfigure and reallocate their financial and managerial resources; in the case of weak firms, divestitures are a mode used primarily to free the necessary monetary funds necessary for firms to address problems and regain competitiveness, whereas for strong firms divestitures are a tool to free scarce managerial resources that can be more efficiently allocated in areas that can provide further growth. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of what drives firms divestitures and corporate strategic decisions in general, and provides evidence that even firms coming from positions of strength can eliminate parts of the organization as a way to grow.</p> / Dissertation

Over the past two decades, the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) has emerged as one of the more influential paradigms from the field of strategic management. However, the theory has been subjected to a number of criticisms, particularly related to the use of methodologies in past research. Many RBV studies have tended to use averaged findings across broad industry samples. Approaches reliant on "averaging" methods will only uncover what is the case for the average, "representative" firm, and will not identify those unique, firm-specific assets that can result in sustained profitability. In order to examine the implications of methodological choice and the RBV, the subjective approach of Q methodology was used in a sample of music industry firms to identify a key resource set for the context of interest, identify strategic groups within the sample based on resource emphasis, and explore the ways in which managers use their resources to generate firm profits. A comparative approach examined resource outcomes by performance group, over multiple levels of analysis. The findings revealed (i) a number of relevant and new, context-specific resources from the music industry, (ii) the identification of three distinct clusters of firms that emerged from the sample based on resource preferences, firm characteristics, and managerial perceptions (iii) key resource findings that varied by level of analysis and by firm performance, and (iv) distinct processes through which the resources become valuable at the level of the firm--even when the same resources are considered. The outcomes of this thesis illustrate how methodological choice can affect findings when using the RBV to uncover important sources of advantage. Furthermore, the outcomes in this thesis point to the weaknesses of many past RBV studies that investigate the impact of resources and capabilities on firm performance, and remind scholars that a defining feature of the RBV is that its intention was to identify sources of advantage at the level of the firm. Moreover, the findings show that past RBV research using aggregated data across multi-industry samples can be misleading in its prescription to managers.

This study has addressed a central issue, a gap in our existing knowledge, literature, analysis, an understanding of the role of state in resource seeking. Whilst the role and operations of the firm, has long been a primary focus of research in Strategic Management, analysis of the role and influence of the state with respect to firms has been relatively under-researched. To investigate this core research question, the study identified and applied the well-established theoretical and methodological approach, the Resource Based View of the ‘firm’ (RBV), developing it further to incorporate and mainstream the factor of the state and elaborating a fresh analytical approach, termed the resource-based view of the ‘state’ (RBS). The new RBS conceptual framework has been proposed by extending the central proposition of the RBV of the firm- that a firm must acquire and control valuable and non-substitutable resources and capabilities, into a multidisciplinary integration of both the institution based view (IBV) approach and the role of the contemporary state in providing resources and capabilities to firms. The central problematic this research is seeking to explore is the new resource-based approach of the Indian state. The state is seeking the acquisition of energy assets overseas, using institutional support mechanisms and the deployment of specific state capabilities and resources. Using an in-depth case analysis of the Indian state, this thesis provides evidence of the resource-based approach, in which the state provides a strategic intent for its firms, creates strategic markets for the firms to compete in as well as providing intangible resources. The state is also presented as a source of new intangible resources that provide competitive advantage and insulate firms from competition in specific markets. Insights from elite interviewees representing a cross-section of institutional actors such as academics, ambassadors, senior government officials, policy planners, advises the state, personnel from state-owned and private resource seeking firms as well as from the fourth estate, in the thesis has provided a rich contextual information to evidence resource seeking in the contemporary Indian state. The key contribution of the new conceptual framework, the RBS model has been in integrating a multidisciplinary approach to the traditional resource based view theory of the firm. Using the institutional context of the Indian state, this thesis has provided an appropriate context for the validation of the RBV of the firm.

KIBS providers are organizations that perform knowledge intensive business activities mainly for other organizations and in the present age have become key components of industrialized economies. The primary purpose of KIBS providers is to deliver customized solutions to clients through the implementation of three core knowledge processes: knowledge acquisition, knowledge recombination, and knowledge diffusion. Existing research has predominantly focused on understanding the importance of these providers in creating a competitive edge for their clients. However, little is known in terms of how such providers can create an improved competitive position for themselves. This research helps to understand whether the use of knowledge processes influences the competitive advantage¬ of KIBS providers. A guiding framework developed from literature posits that such generic knowledge processes may provide competitive advantage for a given provider if they are transformed into valuable, rare, inimitable, and well-exploited resources (VRIO). The study follows a holistic multiple case research design of three IT service providers to refine the existing theory on the influence of knowledge processes on the competitive advantage of KIBS providers. Data was collected through interviews of employees occupying different roles in a company to provide their perspectives on the various parts of the framework. The findings of this study reveal that participants perceive knowledge processes to provide competitive advantage to their companies. However, data analysis using the VRIO framework indicates that knowledge processes do not confer competitive advantage by themselves, but rather through an emerging theme called delivery. Findings also indicate that delivery influences other factors of competitive advantage. The study contributes to the existing literature as it leads to a refined understanding of the relationship between knowledge processes and competitive advantage by highlighting the importance of delivery as a dynamic capability. The study has practical implications for managers as it informs them that delivery improves brand name, reduces costs, and helps to achieve client satisfaction.

Corporate strategy forms the platform to consider fundamental strategic alternatives for an organisation. The recent financial crisis has been a sobering reality check for most companies. Diversification or specialisation are two of the more common configurations that corporate strategy theory would propose to grow and sustain financial performance, particularly during though times. Research conducted in developed markets since the 1950’s have tried to establish if diversification creates or destroys value. Conglomerates, defined as unrelated diversification, are often believed to translate into diversification discounts in developed economies. The application of this theory has been questioned with respect to emerging markets and the empirical results in these markets have been mixed. A conceptual approach using different approaches, institutional, resourcebased, adaptive and learning theories was used to try and explain the deviation in results attained by conglomerates within emerging markets and those in developed markets. Specific arguments and propositions were developed based on these different theoretical lenses for South Africa. These propositions were tested by statistical analysis of organisations listed on the Industrial sector of the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE). The organisations were categorised into conglomerates or focused groups. The two groups were compared in terms of financial measures from the period 2001 to 2009 to determine which group performed better. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted