How Valuable is a Piece of the Spectrum? Re-examining the Notion of Value in the Resource-Based View

Research within the Resource-based View and the Dynamic Capabilities View, while providing seminal insights into firm success and failure, has typically tended to focus on internal resource development rather than external resource acquisition. The growing tendency of firms to acquire resources externally makes it important for us to develop existing understanding of value creation, and destruction around externally acquired resources. In this paper, we examine the case of third generation mobile telephony licenses in the UK, a tangible, priced resource that was acquired externally by firms, to uncover the dynamic process that will determine the eventual value of these licenses. Our study describes how competitive and collaborative dynamics, as well as the various discourses that characterize the context, influence the value of a resource that a particular firm acquires. Our work has important implications for both research and practice.

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