1. ¹Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, Peñalolen, Santiago, Chile
2. ²London Business School, London, UK

Correspondence: MH Kunc, School of Business, Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, Avenida Diagonal Las Torres 2640, Edificio C, Peñalolen, Santiago, Chile. E-mail: martin.kunc@uai.cl, mkunc@london.edu

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 46th Annual Conference of the OR Society—Problem Structuring Methods Stream—in York, England, September 2004.

Received April 2007; Accepted October 2007; Published online 9 January 2008.

Abstract

The resource-based view of strategy seeks to explain why some firms consistently outperform rivals in the same industry by acquiring a unique set of strategic assets (or resources). However, differences between dominant managerial mental models in management teams lead to disagreement at the moment of implementing distinct resource-building strategies. This managerial and cognitive view of strategic decision making and competition lends itself to investigation through problem structuring methods. We suggest that resource maps, as a problem structuring method, can be used to interpret managerial mental models for strategic decision making in terms of resource-building processes. Through resource maps, we represent the system of asset stocks believed to be most important for driving business performance. We illustrate the framework by comparing and contrasting maps of the system of resources (asset stocks) that best characterize two leading firms in the UK commercial radio broadcasting industry.