Summary: | Background: Microbreweries are a rapid and emergent alternative in the alcoholic beverage industry. Understanding resource selection, development, and management with their institutional context and capital are critical for microbreweries to develop sustained competitive advantage in a difficult industry. Therefore, using Oliver’s (1997) and Bresser and Millonig’s (2003) integration of resource capital and institutional capital, the researchers identified a gap in the literature and were interested in exploring how Swedish microbreweries select and manage resource and institutional capital in their competitive context and identify challenges to existing literature. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore and investigate how Swedish microbreweries select, develop, and manage institutional and resource-based capital. The study looks to explain the internal strategy process and factors affecting the microbrewery’s decisions. Method: The study is an exploratory approach by combining existing theoretical frameworks and empirical data. Empirical data was collected through a qualitative research method consisting of seven semi-structured interviews and analysed with the thematic analysis technique. Conclusion: The authors propose an amendment to Oliver’s (1997) model that links the empirical data and existing literature. In this context, collaborations and brewery networks are an important overarching dynamic that influences the procurement and management of resource capital and institutional capital. The dominant nature of collaborations and brewery networks is instrumental in the success of the microbrewery in question as it provides access to valuable resources and knowledge development crucial to achieving a sustained competitive advantage. This model can be used in the understanding of the overlapping factors facing the Swedish microbrewing industry.
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