EMC Working Papers

The major premises of the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) are that firms are bundles of idiosyncratic resources and capabilities and that firms with valuable, rare, inimitable and nonsubstitutable resources and capabilities outperform in their industries (Barney, 2001; Dierickx and Cool, 1989; Wernerfelt, 1984, 1995). Drawing on Barney (1991), Miller and Shamsie (1996) define property-based resources as appropriable resources controlled by the corporation through property rights, and in contrast, knowledge-based resources are those "protected from imitation not by property rights but by knowledge barriers", and often include technical, creative or collaborative skills (1996: 522).

This paper uses the resource-based view framework to conduct a comparative analysis of the major European oil and gas companies. This study will look at six companies namely BP, Eni, Repsol, Shell, Statoil, and Total, and identify which resources are drivers and determinants of their competitive advantage and financial performance. Drawing on the framework of property-based and knowledge-based resources, the paper will analyse six resource categories of oil and gas companies namely annual capital expenditure, annual changes in liquids and gas reserves, annual replacement ratios, refinery distillation capacity and number of service stations, number of employees and net income per employee, and annual levels of drilling activity in exploration and development with a disaggregation of successful and unsuccessful wells drilled.

Research Topics: Project Financing Deregulation