Abstract

This paper seeks to explore how strategic resources in petroleum industry projects are to be best managed and exploited in order to deliver enhanced project performance and sustained business competitiveness. Framed upon the Resource-Based View (‘RBV’) theory, these resources should be ‘Valuable’, ‘Inimitable’, ‘Rare’ and be able to draw on ‘Organisational support’ (‘VIRO’). Qualitative data were collected from petroleum industry organizations operating in the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman between 2017 and 2019. The analysis shows that at the project level, ‘Value’ and ‘Organisational support’ attributes of resources were positively related to competitive advantage and both impacted by dynamic capabilities and innovative environment. However, the ‘Rareness’ and ‘Inimitability’ attributes showed less evolution. We also find that at the project level, the main characteristics of organizational resources were that they are ‘Valuable’, ‘Organizationally supported’, and that they could be ‘Uniquely exploited’ while being ‘Readily available’. The results suggest a desire by project-oriented organizations to replace the ‘Rareness’ and ‘Inimitability’ attributes within VIRO with two alternative attributes, namely ‘Unique exploitation’ and ‘Timely availability’ of resources.

摘要

本文旨在探讨如何最好地管理和利用石油工业项目中的战略资源，以提高项目绩效和持续的商业竞争力。根据基于资源的观点（“RBV”）理论，这些资源应该是“有价值的”、“无与伦比的”、“稀有的”，并且能够利用“组织支持”（“VIRO”）。定性数据收集自 2017 年至 2019 年间在阿拉伯联合酋长国和阿曼苏丹国运营的石油工业组织。分析表明，在项目层面，“价值”和“组织支持”'资源属性与竞争优势正相关，并受动态能力和创新环境的影响。然而，“稀有”和“不可模仿”属性表现出较少的进化。我们还发现，在项目层面，组织资源的主要特征是它们“有价值”、“组织支持”，并且可以“独特地利用”同时“随时可用”。结果表明，以项目为导向的组织希望将VIRO中的“稀有性”和“不可模仿性”属性替换为两个替代属性，即资源的“独特开发”和“及时可用”。