Integrating resource‐based theory in a practice‐relevant form

Purpose – This paper aims to address the limited development of techniques to analyze firms' internal sources of competitive performance. It seeks to enhance the contribution of the widely diffused value‐rarity‐imitability‐organisation (VRIO) model to practical strategy making. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on the resource‐based literature to assemble an integrated set of steps that evaluate a firm's resources and competence. Findings – The paper proposes an expanded version of the VRIO model that represents resource and competence as a conditional outcome from attributes and asymmetries present in the firm. It shows how the conditions convert asymmetries between weaknesses, missed opportunities, rigidities and resources. Research limitations/implications – By synthesising resource‐based theory in a practice‐relevant form, the paper delineates a concrete set of practices that relate to firms' dynamic capability to manage resources and competence. Practical implications – The paper details an approach to resource and competence analysis that leads directly to decisions about how a firm can manage the resources in question. The model gives a central role to the conditions under which a firm's attributes give rise to a resource or competence, and hence suggests active management of these conditions. Originality/value – The paper presents resource‐based theory in a form that focuses on the doing of strategy, in contrast to the traditional focus of this literature.