A Role of Intangible Resources in the Context of Electronic Commerce : A Resource-based Perspective

There has been growing attention toward intangible resources as a source of competitive advantage. Due to the unique nature, organizations are concerned with enhancing ways of developing and managing intangible resources. Especially in the context of electronic commerce represented by intensive competition, it becomes increasingly important to understand the role of intangible resources which are inherently hard to identify. The objective of this study is to examine the role of intangible resources in generating potential benefits towards competitive advantage. For doing this, we suggest a framework for investigating the role of intangible resources and apply it to the B2C e-shop context to demonstrate a presented framework. Based on the insights from framework concepts and case findings, several propositions are derived for further related research.