Resource-Based Theory and Corporate Diversification Accomplishments and Opportunities

• Published in: Journal of management Vol. 37; no. 5; pp. 1335 - 1368
• Main Authors: Wan, William P., Hoskisson, Robert E., Short, Jeremy C., Yiu, Daphne W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.09.2011; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Corporate culture; Corporations, Diversified; Diversification; Diversification in industry; Economics; Industrial organization; Management; Management research; Organization theory; Organizational culture; Organizational research; Organizational structure; Resource management; Resource-based theory; Strategic management; Studies; corporate diversification; resource-based theory
• ISSN: 0149-2063; 1557-1211
• DOI: 10.1177/0149206310391804

Corporate diversification, a major strategic management research topic, has been influenced significantly by resource-based theory. In this review, the authors make two main contributions to this literature. First, they discuss the historical development of corporate diversification research employing the resource-based theory perspective and related concepts, highlighting important insights to date. They then review this literature and discuss its main contributions. Second, the authors identify open issues and suggest opportunities for future contributions and describe ways that research on corporate diversification using the resource-based theory perspective could be further enriched by integration with theoretical insights culled from the organizational economics, new institutional economics, and industrial organization economics literatures.