Two assumptions are critical in the resource-based model: (1) resource heterogeneity
and (2) resource immobility.What does this mean? In the resource-based view, a firm
is assumed to be a bundle of resources, capabilities, and competencies. The first critical assumption— resource heterogeneity —is that bundles of resources, capabilities, and competencies differ across firms. The insight that the resource-based view brings to strategy is that the resource bundles of firms competing in the same industry (or even the same strategic group) are unique to some extent and thus differ from one another. For example,although Southwest Airlines (SWA) and Alaska Airlines both compete in the same strategic group (low-cost, point-to-point airlines, see Exhibit 3.5), they draw on different resource bundles. SWA’s employee productivity tends to be higher than that of Alaska Airlines, because the two companies differ along human and organizational resources. At SWA, job descriptions are informal and employees pitch in to “get the job done.” Pilots may help load luggage to ensure an on-time departure; flight attendants clean airplanes to help turn them around at the gate within 15 minutes from arrival to departure. This allows SWA to keep its planes flying for longer and lowers its cost structure, savings which SWA passes on to passengers in lower ticket prices.