The importance of a firm's internal characteristics— represented by its resources and capabilities—highlights a shift in the priorities and prescriptions of strategic management research. The field has evolved or developed from a position that understanding industry characteristics and then positioning the firm to take advantage of industry characteristics relative to competitors was of primary importance to recognizing that it is a firm's resources and capabilities (which represent sources of core competencies) that should serve as the foundation for firm strategy.

This shift recognizes that industry attractiveness is not dependent only on industry characteristics. Industry attractiveness is ultimately determined by both industry characteristics (which can be translated into opportunities and threats) or what a firm might do and its internal strengths (its resources, capabilities, and core competencies) which determine what a firm is capable of doing to take advantage of (or exploit) external opportunities.

Can efforts to develop sustainable competitive advantages result in employees using unethical practices? If so, what unethical practices might be used to compare a firm’s core competencies with those held by rivals? How do the Internet’s capabilities affect actions taken to form competitive advantages that will help the firm in its efforts to outperform its rivals.