THE FRONT-END OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: THE RIGHT SPEED AND ITS VALUE 1 Gonçalo Pacheco-de-Almeida Associate Professor of Strategy HEC Paris 1 rue de la Libération, 78351 Jouy-en-Josas Cedex, France Phone: (+33) (0)1 39 67 97 62, Fax: (+33) (0)1 39 67 70 84, pachecodealmeida@hec.fr Ashton Hawk Assistant Professor of Management and Human Resources Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University 754 Fisher Hall, 2100 Neil Ave, Columbus, OH 43210 Phone: 614 292 4588, Fax: 614-292-7062, hawk@fisher.osu.edu Bernard Yeung Stephen Riady Distinguished Professor National University of Singapore, NUS Business School MRB Building, BIZ 1, 6-19, 15 Kent Ridge Drive, Singapore 119245 Phone: (+65) 6516 3075, Fax: (+65) 6779 1365, byeung@nus.edu.sg RUNNING HEAD: The Right Speed and Its Value KEYWORDS: time-based competition; speed capabilities; strategy dynamics; random parameters model; firm-specific coefficients. For their helpful comments, we wish to thank the Editor Will Mitchell, two anonymous referees, Juan Alcácer, Gerald Bush, Luís Cabral, Olivier Chatain, Moritz Fliescher, Pankaj Ghemawat, Bill Greene, Matthew Grennan, Marvin Lieberman, Hong Luo, Glenn MacDonald, Tomasz Obloj, Scott Rockart, Rachelle Sampson, Charles Sander, Jordan Siegel, Brian Silverman, Mark Triesch, Pai-Ling Yin, Peter Zemsky, and several seminar participants at the AoM Conference, the ACAC Conference, the Baruch College, the BETA-CNRS Strasbourg, the CCC Doctoral Colloquium, the ESMT Berlin, the Fuqua School of Business, HEC Paris, IESE Business School, the ISTO at the Munich School of Management, the Krannert School of Management, the London Business School, the Nova School of Business and Economics, the Organization Science Winter Conference, the Strategy Research Forum, the Stern School of Business, the Rotman School, and the Wharton Business School.