Organizational Culture: Can It Be a Source of Sustained Competitive Advantage?
- 1 July 1986
- journal article
- Published by Academy of Management in Academy of Management Review
- Vol. 11 (3) , 656-665
- https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1986.4306261
Abstract
Three attributes that a firm's culture must have to generate sustained competitive advantages are isolated. Previous findings suggest that the cultures of some firms have these attributes; thus, these cultures are a source of such advantages. The normative implications of the analysis are discussed. Firms that do not have the required cultures cannot engage in activities that will modify their cultures and generate sustained superior financial performance because their modified cultures typically will be neither rare nor imperfectly imitable. Firms that have cultures with the required attributes can obtain sustained superior financial performance from their cultures.Keywords
This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
- A Structurationist Account of Political CultureAdministrative Science Quarterly, 1983
- Semiotics and the Study of Occupational and Organizational CulturesAdministrative Science Quarterly, 1983
- Native-View Paradigms: Multiple Cultures and Culture Conflicts in OrganizationsAdministrative Science Quarterly, 1983
- The Uniqueness Paradox in Organizational StoriesAdministrative Science Quarterly, 1983
- The role o f the founder in creating organizational cultureOrganizational Dynamics, 1983
- The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational FieldsAmerican Sociological Review, 1983
- On Studying Organizational CulturesAdministrative Science Quarterly, 1979
- Symbols, patterns, and settings: An optimistic case for getting things doneOrganizational Dynamics, 1978
- Evaluation Methodology in Organization Development: An Analysis and CritiqueThe Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 1978
- The Role of Institutionalization in Cultural PersistenceAmerican Sociological Review, 1977