Journal of Management Research
Volume 5, Number 2 (August 2005)
ISSN: 0972-5814 Online ISSN: 0974-455X
Resource Substitution Why an Effective Late-Mover Strategy?
Jae Wook Yoo and Young Jun Choi
| Abstract |
This study focuses on the resource substitution strategy of late movers in a dynamic environment. We identify “the dark side” of a first movers’ effort to sustain its causally ambiguous competency-based advantage. Then, based on this identification, we suggest a model that describes why resource substitution can be an effective strategy to late movers. We propose that although the efforts of a first mover to sustain its competitive advantage are crucial to maintain its barriers to imitation, those efforts not only decrease its capability for resource substitution due to competency’s nature of causal ambiguity, but also lower its barrier to resource substitution in a highly competitive market that characterizes the current business environment. We also propose intensified causal ambiguity of the first mover as indicative of a lessened likelihood of its counterattack in response to a resource substitution of late mover.
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