Track - Capability and the resource-based view in practice and theory: An operations management perspective

This track provides an opportunity to increase scholarly attention on the practical application of the resource-based view (RBV) and RBV theory building within operations management. Emerging from the strategy domain and with a natural focus on firm level analysis criticisms of the RBV remain in two areas: its tautological aspects and the paucity of empirical evidence to connect resources with firm performance, especially sustainable competitive advantage. The latter criticism involves a lack of understanding on how resources are converted into activities, with potentially unique features, and capable of contributing to sustainable competitive advantage. However, the idea of resources being mobilized (or coordinated) into activities (or capabilities) that are at least useful to a firm or group of firms is applicable at other units of analysis.

Operations management scholars taking a lower unit of analysis are very familiar with ordering and coordinating tangible and intangible resources into manufacturing systems, design procedures and so on. Operations scholars also study higher units of analysis for example in supply chain design, configuration and coordination. Indeed much of the operations literature concerns such tasks and their ongoing improvement through processes analogous with *Teece's (2007) third category of dynamic capability: "…capacity … to maintain competitiveness through enhancing, combining, protecting, and, when necessary, reconfiguring the business enterprise’s intangible and tangible assets."

Thus many operations management scholars have access to examples of detailed coordination and, taking the RBV perspective, have the opportunity to contribute to theory development in the area most critical to its progress - how can resources be mobilized into useful, even core activities? The results of such research are likely to be highly relevant to practitioners, opening an avenue to improvement that is as much concerned with how resources are co-ordinated as on improving the resources themselves.

We therefore seek conceptual and empirical papers that explore the following:

• Conscious and unconscious application of RBV in operations contexts
• Empirical examples of resource coordination
• Coordination assessment
• Potential frameworks of coordination types
• Exploration of the interfaces between related capabilities

* Teece, D.J., (2007). “Explicating Dynamic Capabilities: The Nature and Microfoundations of (Sustainable) Enterprise Performance”, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 28, pp.1319-1350.

We welcome conceptual as well as empirical papers and encourage multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary contributions across different units of analysis. All methodological approaches are equally welcome.

Contributors are invited to email extended abstracts (1000 words) via the website, www.EurOMA2011.org, by January 17th, 2011. Instructions on how to submit your abstract can be found on the website. Please ensure you specify the correct track name - Capability and the resource-based view in practice and theory: An operations management perspective. Please indicate the corresponding author. Abstracts will be blindly reviewed and evaluated based on the following criteria: Relevance, Clarity, Significance, Originality, Quality, and Impact.

Decisions regarding acceptance will be made by February 17th, 2011. Papers are accepted on the assumption that the manuscript is an original work and has not been copyrighted, published or accepted for presentation at other conferences. At least one author must register, attend the conference, and present the paper. Full papers must be received by May 16th, 2011. Accepted papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings.

Track co-organizers:

John Mills, University of Cambridge (jfm@eng.cam.ac.uk); Professor Mike Lewis, University of Bath (mal20@management.bath.ac.uk); Ran Bamrah, Loughborough University (R.S.Bhamra@lboro.ac.uk).