Intangible resources and strategic orientation of companies: An analysis in the Spanish context

Abstract

To obtain a sustainable competitive advantage, companies must analyze the resources and capacities they possess in order to select strategies likely to offer the best returns. Therefore, the consistency that exists between a company's set of resources and capacities and its strategic orientation has constituted a fundamental subject of study in strategic management [Adm. Sci. Q. 25 (1980) 317; Strategic Manage. J. 6 (1985) 273; J. Manage. Stud. 23 (4) (1986) 401]. However, it has been argued in the literature that the company's achievement of a sustainable competitive advantage depends not only on the resources and capabilities that constitute its competitive basis, nor on the consistency of these with its strategy, but also on the degree of coincidence or overlap between its resources and the set of strategic industrial factors (SIFs) that are critical for success in its markets [Strategic Manage. J. 14 (1993) 33; Barney, J. Integrating organizational behavior and strategy formulation research: a resource based analysis. In: Shrivastava P., Huff A., Dutton J., editors. Advances in Strategic Management, vol. 8. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1992. pp. 39–62]. From the starting point of these theoretical considerations, we have defined three hypotheses aimed at analyzing the linkage between the resources and capabilities possessed by companies and their strategic orientation, and at determining the influence exercised by competitive market factors on the choice of a particular strategy. For the empirical testing of these hypotheses, we took a sample of 130 out of the 500 largest Spanish companies, subjecting the data obtained to various techniques of multivariant analysis.