The Dangers and Attractions of Theoretical Eclecticism

Shelby Hunt’s A General Theory of Competition: Resources, Competences, Productivity, Economic Growth is an extremely ambitious and challenging work. It attempts to construct a theory of competition, called resource-advantage theory, by collecting insights from diverse perspectives in economics and business administration. However, there is little reflection in the book with respect to how theories should be combined in the concrete, and resource-advantage theory does not seem to lead to results that are not contained in one or more of its constituent theories. Although Hunt’s work suffers from excessive eclecticism, it is an admirable starting point for further research.