Strategic theories of organizing are grounded in the
notion that organizations should configure their
internal resources and capabilities to address
competitive opportunities and threats. The
knowledge-based view suggests that knowledge may be the
most enduring and strategic resource. This article
presents a taxonomy for describing resources,
capabilities and competitive environments in terms of
four distinct yet related knowledge processing
requirements or "problems", viz., complexity,
uncertainty, equivocality, and ambiguity. Each suggests
a particular knowledge processing capability. The
taxonomy is used to develop finer-grained distinctions
regarding knowledge-based theories of the firm and the
resource-based concept of inimitability.
