Revisiting an identity-based view of sustainable competitive advantage

Those of us who contributed to the Journal of Management’s 1991 special issue on a resourcebased view of the firm began with the assumption that it is possible for a firm to gain and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. Based on that general premise, we presented various arguments suggesting that a firm’s resources represent a major source of that potential advantage. Ten years later, I begin this revisit of my identity-based view of sustainable advantage by questioning our premise that it is possible to gain a sustainable advantage based on any particular core competency, no matter how inimitable. I then review what we have learned during the past decade about organizational identities and identification and their role in creating and destroying a firm’s temporary competitive advantages.