Resource enablement modeling: Implications for studying the diffusion of technology

Organizations contemplating standardized technology adoption are confronted both by the potential for internal capability gains and by inter-organizational forces. Although such technologies may appear imitable and non-strategic, they can enable idiosyncrasies and strategic gains through their interaction with other resources possessed by firms. Based on Barney’s original 1991 thesis on the resource-based view, Abrahamson and Rosenkopf’s 1997 analytical framework is reconceptualized and extended to capture both internal and external elements of assessment and IT value generation. An analytical experiment is conducted on the extended model to illustrate how technology diffusion is simply one artifact of a general cycle of resource enablement that can be viewed as driving idiosyncratic strategic gains and facilitating inter-organizational dynamics.