The Paradox of Resource Inimitability in Competitive Strategy Unpacking Aggressiveness and Complexity in National Olympic Committees
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2025-06-19
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en
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This study addresses a critical gap in strategic management research by empirically investigating how a firm's resource characteristics translate into specific competitive behaviours, particularly the influence of inimitable resources on the aggressiveness and complexity of competitive actions. National Olympic Committees provide an interesting context due to their complex, multi-stakeholder environment requiring strategic resource allocation for athletic rather than financial success. Utilising content analysis of secondary data from 36 NOCs over a 22-year period based on the SPLISS framework, the research employs PLS-SEM to test its hypotheses. The findings strongly support that inimitable resources lead to significantly greater competitive aggressiveness. However, contrary to expectations, the results reveal a negative relationship between inimitable resources and competitive complexity, suggesting that such resources enable simpler, more focused strategic approaches rather than necessitating diversification. Additionally, country-level contextual factors explain substantial variance in competitive complexity, indicating that resource-based theory requires integration with institutional theory for comprehensive understanding of strategic dynamics. Practically, organizations should prioritize developing fewer, high-quality inimitable resources and adopt focused strategies, while adapting approaches to local contexts. Despite limitations including constrained sample size and single-item constructs, this research provides empirical validation for resource-behaviour linkages and underscores the importance of context-dependent strategic decisions.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen