Since the early 1980s it has been recognized that a firm's resources, capabilities and competencies help it gain a competitive advantage, that in turn produces higher performance. This resource-based view of the firm has been an important development in the field of strategic management. It explains why some organizations perform better than others and shows that leveraging, both tangible and intangible, resources is necessary to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. Bringing together contributions from multiple perspectives this book examines the management of strategic resources. First, the book discusses resource strategy and firm performance - how resources lead to competitive advantage and how firm resources interplay with the firm strategy to produce specific outcomes. Second, it addresses the development, commitment and governance of firm resources - how firms develop critical resources, including the especially difficult development of intangible resources such as tacit knowledge, internal networks and the creation of new intellectual capital. Finally, attention is focused on the problems involved in the transfer of resources and skills in cooperative strategies such as strategic alliances, and the allocation of resources to produce innovation. The resource-based view of the firm is a valuable way of analyzing and understanding firm strategies and performance. The contributions in this book provide an important in-depth view of how strategic resources can be developed and leveraged to create value in organizations.