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J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. (2014) 42:121 DOI 10.1007/s11747-013-0336-7
CONCEPTUAL/THEORETICAL PAPER
Resource-based theory in marketing
Irina V. Kozlenkova & Stephen A. Samaha &
Robert W. Palmatier
Received: 7 January 2013 /Accepted: 10 March 2013 /Published online: 6 April 2013 # Academy of Marketing Science 2013
Abstract The use of resource-based theory (RBT) in marketing research has increased by more than 500% in the past decade, which suggests its importance as a framework for explaining and predicting competitive advantages and performance outcomes. This article provides a comprehensive review of RBT, including a contemporary definitional foundation for relevant terms and assumptions and a synthesis of empirical findings from marketing literature. This multidimensional analysis of RBT also evaluates extant marketing research according to four perspectives: the marketing domains that use RBT, the characteristics and uses of market-based resources that differentiate it from other research contexts, the extension of RBT to the marketing exchange as a unit of analysis, and the connection of RBT to related theories. This analysis also reveals some common pitfalls associated with prior research, offers tentative guidelines on how to improve the use of RBT in marketing, and suggests research directions to advance the theorization and empirical testing of RBT in the future.
Keywords Resource-based theory (RBT) . Resource-based view (RBV) . Dynamic capability theory . VRIO . Marketing resources . Marketing assets
Introduction
The resource-based view of the firm (RBV) and the resultant resource-based theory (RBT) provide an important framework for explaining and predicting the basis of a firms competitive advantage and performance (Barney et al. 2011; Slotegraaf et al. 2003; Vorhies and Morgan 2005). In the past decade, the applications of resource-based logic in marketing have grown exponentially; in the 1990s, only 19 articles in marketing explicitly referenced the RBT or RBV, but in the 2000s, that number increased to 104. In just 201012, more than 50 published conceptual and empirical marketing articles drew on RBT (according to a search of marketing journals abstracts in the Business Source Premier database for explicit references to the theory). This upward trend indicates the growing importance of RBT to marketing. While top management journals have dedicated special issues solely to RBT (e.g., issues 17(1), 27(6), and 37(5) of Journal of Management), there is a need...