The Competitive Advantage of Knowledge-Based Resources in the Semiconductor Industry

Book excerpt: First Published in 1997. Knowledge and knowledge-based resources occupy critical positions in a company’s value chain. The theme of the book is that organizational distinctive competences are asymmetrical accumulations of knowledge-based resources relative to a firm's competitors. These accumulations of knowledge and capabilities enable and constrain a firm's ability to develop competences in specific areas such as new product development. Knowledge and capabilities are sources of competitive advantage to the extent that they are non-transferable and non-imitable The imitability of knowledge-based resources is a function of two conceptually distinct attributes: tacitness and tangibility. This book looks at how the evolution of industry knowledge influences new product strategies in successive product generations of the semiconductor industry. This book also makes some basic distinctions among the types of organizational resources that tend to generate unusual economic returns.