Citation:
C. Bowman, S. Toms, Accounting for competitive advantage: The resource-based view of the firm and the labour theory of value, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 21, Issue 3, The Contours of Critical Accounting, March 2010, Pages 183-194
Abstract:
This article uses accounting concepts to assist the field of strategic
management in its search for a theory of value, competitive advantage and
superior profitability. Specifically, it argues that the resource-based view of
the firm requires a labour theory of value creation. Using the circuit of
capital as an organizing framework this article integrates RBV and Marx's value
theory, by introducing the notion of value as socially necessary labour time,
into the analysis of resource-based advantage. This enables us to identify the
impact of particular sources of competitive advantage as they become diffused
through an industry. Some resource-based advantages, when eventually imitated
lead to an overall reduction in industry profitability, and other advantages
lead to increases in industry average profitability.