The more manageable a firm’s culture is, the less valuable it will be for the firm. Agree or disagree—and explain — Agreed same reasons that may contribute its sustained

SOLUTION

Agreed, the same reasons that a firm’s culture may contribute to its sustained competitive advantage are the same reasons a firm may find its culture creating a drag on its attempts to change during periods of difficulty. This is because a firm’s cultural influence is likely to depend on intangible factors that are not easily described and that represent the accumulated history of the firm much better than a description at any point in time. Barney identifies three factors that might allow a culture to be a source of sustainable competitive advantage. One of these is that the culture must be inimitable. Rivals will imitate a successful firm’s culture that is easily imitated and the advantage gained by the firm’s culture will be negated. However, a culture that is not easily imitable must also be very complex. This complexity would make it very difficult for internal managers to modify the culture in a short period of time. A firm whose success is related to its culture will likely find a positive alignment between its culture and its goals. When those goals change (as when the firm finds its competitive environment changes), the accumulated history that goes into comprising a culture will take much longer to change. Therefore, the firm finds its culture to be inertial in its effects in that culture represents the accumulation of history and routines of the firm. This inertia also makes culture a barrier to change when changes might be needed that sharply diverge from the firm’s history and routines.