Representations of resource concepts in academic research

Hierarchical structures of concepts are vital for theory development. However, although resources are at the heart of competitive advantage and performance of an entrepreneurial firm, the hierarchical conceptualisations of resources are scant in academic research. We used an existing resource categorisation framework and populated a list of resources explicitly mentioned in extant literature. The study was based on an extensive search on ScienceDirectpsilas digital library resulting in the final data set of 59 articles which explicitly considered resources as concepts. The findings show the current state of affairs in this field and illustrate conceptual farrago with an emerging category of technical resources. Furthermore, the study considers several issues for further research in order to aid in future theory development.