Generalizing about uniqueness - An essay on an apparent paradox in the resource-based view

Firm-idiosyncratic resources are at the heart of the resource-based view. A hallmark of empirical research findings supporting or falsifying a theory is generalizability. Generalizability demands that research findings are not idiosyncratic to the firm or sample of firms studied. The author develops a typology for mapping the apparently paradoxical relationship between resource idiosyncrasy and generalizability of research findings. Implications for empirical work are then deduced to advance our understanding of the resource-based "view" as a theory.