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after all, most companies in an industry are seeking to obtain them. The authors contend that ordinary resources may play an overlooked but important role in successful strategies -and competing with ordinary resources can be a valuable complement to competing with strategic resources. An ordinary resource is a common resource on the market, generally perceived as neutral in terms of performance. Such a resource is considered, at best, as ensuring competitive parity. While ordinary resources are not, in and of themselves, a source of competitive advantage and greater performance, they are generally required for the business to function properly. Examples of ordinary resources include compliance with ISO standards in the automobile industry; stores and salespeople in retailing; and websites and logistics competencies in e-commerce. Unless ordinary resources are leveraged, strategic resources cannot always deliver their full-fledged competitive potential. In particular, the use of ordinary resources enables the duplication of a business model in many business units and/or in many countries. For instance, McDonald's Corp. is the world's largest chain of fast-food restaurants. But the replication of the McDonald's business model is possible specifically because the model leverages relatively ordinary resources, in the form of more than 1.8 million employees worldwide. Most entry-level McDonald's employees are not highly qualified, are part-time workers and can be easily replaced. However, the McDonald's brand can only be leveraged thanks to these ordinary resources. The authors also observe that the emergence of new business models that leverage a vast array of ordinary resources -particularly multisided platform business models -raises questions about the relevance of the traditional strategic focus on scarcity-based approaches and unique resources. For example, Airbnb connects an abundant number of people who want to source out their empty rooms to hirers who are

• Competitive strategy