The Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm provides an explanation of how companies main gain competitive advantage on a market. When considering the use of depletive natural resources, RBV falls short in explaining how companies may both gain a maximum value from the resources and gain a sustainable competitive advantage through long term use of the resource. Confronted to a time horizon issue between short term rent appropriation and maximization and long-term availability of the resource, companies must develop strategies that enable them to secure a sustainable use of the resource. Our paper sheds light on a specific strategy that companies implement to address this issue. We called this strategy ‘pre-competition’ and theorize that it builds on a triple articulation of drawing on specific characteristics of the resource, stewardship, and articulating time horizons. In that way, we consolidate the robustness of RBV through specifying under which condition it may be applied to natural resources.
