Exploring the Origins and Nature of Knowledge-based Competitive Advantage

Modelization of competitive advantage has received great attention in scientific management literature. We present a conceptual proposal concerning the strategic knowledge-intensive capabilities evaluation criteria. In a different way from previous studies, we focus in differentiating between causes and effects. Likewise, we identify to wide kinds of strategic evaluation criteria that hold hierarchical or dependent relationships: root criteria and derivative criteria. We identify three root criteria concerning the strategic value of knowledge-intensive of capabilities: external complexity, internal complexity, and rareness. Taking into account these root criteria, we define derivative criteria in organizational knowledge strategic evaluation process as the ones that let us to relate the effects of root criteria in creating and sustaining competitive advantage and in appropriating rent generation –durability, reproducibility, transferability and substitutability–.