The resource-based view of the firm has become dominant within the field of strategic management, yet it has had surprisingly little influence within organization theory. In this article, we document the divide between strategy and organization theory and propose an interpretation. Choices of theories are largely driven by a researcher’s dependent variables, and the questions “Why do firms do what they do?” and “Why do some firms perform better than others?” can have distinct answers. Thus, strategic management scholars and organization theorists are like howler monkeys and spider monkeys, coexisting peacefully in the same ecosystem by dining on different dependent variables. We further speculate on the looming existential crisis for both fields as traditional firms are increasingly unsustainable due to the transformation wrought by the digital revolution in product markets and the markets for capital, labor, and supplies.

企业的基于资源的观点已在战略管理领域中占主导地位，但在组织理论中却几乎没有影响。在本文中，我们记录了策略和组织理论之间的鸿沟，并提出了一种解释。理论的选择很大程度上取决于研究人员的因变量，以及“公司为什么要做什么？”这样的问题。和“为什么有些公司的业绩要好于其他公司？” 可以有不同的答案。因此，战略管理学者和组织理论家就像吼猴和蜘蛛猴一样，通过吃不同的因变量而和平共处在同一生态系统中。