Superior performance, managerial comprehension and resource-based strategies

The cross-sectional study looks at how firms develop superior performance using their internal resources. It is a study based on the resource-based view of the firm. The study looks at firms in the Motor Vehicle Manufacturing Industry in UK. It was initially planned as a comparative study with firms in the same industry in Zimbabwe. The study argues that for resources to be potential sources of superior performance, managers have to comprehend the strategic concepts that are concerned with these resources. The study further hypothesises that Comprehension itself is affected by Experience and Functional Expertise/Training & Development The data was analysed using SPSS programme (Version 8). The main methods of analyses were factor analysis, correlational analysis, moderated regression & subgroup analyses, and regression analysis. The results suggest that Comprehension, defined as either Knowledge, or Applicability of intangible resources, or Applicability of capabilities, contributes to developing superior performance. The results also show that Experience, and Training & Development contribute to developing superior performance The results however, did not support the hypothesis that managers with more experience had better comprehension of strategic concepts. The results seem to suggest that Experience has a negative effect on Comprehension. A possible explanation to this negative relationship could be that those managers who had been in the managerial position for many years were not familiar with the RBV concepts, which are relatively new concepts. The results did not also support the hypothesis that managers who attended more training and development programmes had better comprehension of strategic concepts. Instead, the results show that Training & Development has a negative effect on Comprehension. These results suggest that although many managers have on-going management training and development programmes, these programmes do not seem to improve their comprehension of strategic concepts.