The role of core capabilities in producing competitive advantage: Longitudinal evidence from the semiconductor silicon industry

The author seeks to fill a void in the literature concerning the core capability perspective. At the heart of the core capabilities perspective lies a normative claim: firms that build strategy around core capabilities are more likely to succeed than firms that build strategy around more traditional notions of strategic positioning. To date, evidence to support this claim has been limited to individual case studies and anecdotal evidence. In this thesis, systematic empirical evidence is presented which suggests that the concept of core capabilities has theoretical and practical importance.; This thesis is a longitudinal study of a single industry, the semiconductor silicon industry, which empirically examines the normative claim of the core capabilities perspective. The author makes use of both quantitative and qualitative research techniques to trace the evolution of 156 firms through the 40 year history of this {dollar}4 billion industry.; The author provides a methodology for measuring the technological core capabilities of each firm. These measures are then used to categorize the firms in the industry. These categories are then analyzed to shed light on the robustness of the core capabilities perspective. The analysis strongly supports the normative claim that building strategy around core capabilities yields the highest probability of success.