Case Study Of RBV

© Academy of Management Journal
1996, Vol. 39, No. 3. 519-543.

THE RESOURCE-BASED VIEW OF THE FIRM IN
TWO ENVIRONMENTS: THE HOLLYWOOD FILM
STUDIOS FROM 1936 TO 1965
DANNY MILLER
Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Montreal, and Columbia University
JAMAL SHAMSIE
New York University
This article continues to operationally define and test the resourcehased view of the firm in a study of the major U.S. film studios from
1936 to 1965. We found that property-hased resources in the form of exclusive long-term contracts with stars and theaters helped financial performance in the stable, predictable environment of 1936-50. In contrast, knowledge-based resources in the form of production and coordinative talent and budgets boosted financial performance in the more uncertain (changing and unpredictable) post-television environment of 1951-65.

The resource-based view of the firm provides a useful complement to
Porter 's (1980) well-known structural perspective of strategy. This view shifts the emphasis from the competitive environment of firms to the resources that firms have developed to compete in that environment. Unfortunately, although it has generated a great deal of conceptualizing (see reviews by
Black and Boal [1994] and Peteraf [1993]), the resource-based view is just beginning to occasion systematic empirical study (Collis, 1991; Henderson &
Cockburn, 1994; Montgomery & Wernerfelt, 1988; McGrath, MacMillan, &
Venkatraman, 1995). Thus, the concept of resources remains an amorphous one that is rarely operationally defined or tested for its performance implications in different competitive environments.
In the interests of testing and advancing the application of the resourcebased view, this research develops the distinction between property-based and knowledge-based resources. We argue that the former are likely to contribute most to performance in stable and predictable settings, whereas the latter will be of the greatest utility in uncertain—that is, changing

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