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From Possible to Probable: The Psychology of Competitive Advantage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2015

Robert E. Ployhart
Robert E. Ployhart*
Affiliation:
University of South Carolina
*
E-mail: ployhart@moore.sc.edu, Address: Department of Management, Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29212
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Abstract

This article responds to and extends the commentaries on the psychology of competitive advantage focal article. In general, the commentaries stressed that (a) the connection between industrial–organizational (I–O) psychology and strategy should go beyond resource-based theory and competitive advantage, (b) there are some existing examples of strategic I–O research, and (c) practitioners are already integrating I–O psychology with strategy. In this article, I use these commentaries as a means of generating actionable steps (e.g., research studies) to make the strategic adjacent possibility a reality. I conclude by arguing that understanding the psychology underlying firm competitiveness is the defining question of our time, and perhaps even the future of I–O psychology.

Type
Response
Information
Industrial and Organizational Psychology , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 120 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2012 

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