Conclusion and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

The introductory chapter of this dissertation outlined the continuously heated debate of whether RBT can in fact be considered a theory, with critics basically questioning the empirical testability of RBT. Throughout this dissertation, it became obvious that RBT is — and has been — empirically testable. To make this argument, I addressed and cleared each of the three main research deficits of RBT in this respect: (1) the lack of understanding towards RBT’s central empirically testable propositions; (2) the lack of understanding towards the empirical validation of RBT, i.e., no thorough efforts towards the accumulation and integration of research findings; and (3) the lack of systematically addressing the methodological problems, and evaluating a broader basis of more suitable methods. In the following, I will conclude on the main findings, while also outlining implications for RBT. In addition, I will discuss the dissertation’s limitations as well as provide a future research agenda for resource-based research, both theoretically and empirically.