Search results

In the author's experience, even veteran executives often make statements about competitive advantage that reflect either genuine misunderstanding or casual misuse of the term. This paper aims to offer a clear explanation of what constitutes competitive advantage so as to facilitate identification, assessment and strategizing.

The paper proposes a definition of competitive advantage that differs from that proposed by many textbooks. It is based on the idea that competitive advantage can only be defined in terms of customer value.

A number of cases are examined in the light of the customer value approach to identifying competitive advantage.

Company executives learn to periodically engage in systematic information gathering regarding customer‐perceived competitive advantages.

Organizations that adopt this customer‐perceived approach to competitive advantage can make better assessments of where to expend their efforts and resources to outmaneuver their rivals and improve profitability.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of customer relationship management (CRM) components on competitive advantage through customer loyalty in the banking sector of Bangladesh.

A structured questionnaire was used for the data collection process. In all, 326 respondents were participated in the survey and selected conveniently from the commercial banks of Bangladesh. Data were analyzed by using Smart-PLS software.

The outcomes of this study indicate that customer orientation and technology capability have a positive impact on competitive advantage, while customer knowledge does not. Besides, customer loyalty significantly mediates the relationship between customer orientation and technology capability with competitive advantage, while this mediation effect appears insignificant between customer knowledge and competitive advantage.

This study's findings can help Bangladeshi bank managers communicate with new customers about their promotional activities while keeping old customers informed about new CRM initiatives.

This study adds to the existing pool of knowledge on CRM components, customer loyalty and competitive advantage literature. Particularly, the mediating role of customer loyalty between the CRM components (customer orientation and technology capability) and competitive advantage is the unique contribution of this research.

Our study proposes a resource environment view (REV) of competitive advantage by unpacking the environmental origins of a firm’s competitive advantage. The key tenet of the REV is that the heterogeneity and imperfect mobility of strategic factor markets and institutions across countries explain how firms based in different countries would likely both create and sustain a competitive advantage. In particular, our study introduces the notion of “the paradox of environmental embeddedness.” The paradox lies in the fact that the same environmental conditions – in terms of strategic factor markets and institutions – that enable firms to create a competitive advantage can paradoxically also create a situation in which it is more difficult for these firms to sustain an advantage. Another important aspect of our study is that, to enhance our understanding of how firms manage the paradox of environmental embeddedness, our study specifies the resource environmental conditions under which firms’ internal and external resource-oriented strategies – that is, the development of dynamic capabilities and interventions in the country resource environment – are more beneficial when managing the environmental paradox. Overall, our theorizing has important implications for strategic management theory and practice.

This paper proposes a holistic, resource-based strategy framework for design-oriented industries consisting mainly of small firms. It consists of three main concepts: (1) sources of competitive advantage, especially core competencies, (2) competitive advantage, and (3) competitive strategy. The idea behind the framework is that sources of competitive advantage form the competitive advantages of firms, and these together influence the choice of competitive strategies. The proposed framework was developed on the basis of interview results from the jewellery industry in Finland. A total of 44 small firms each employing less than 25 people were interviewed. Respondents felt that the two most important core competencies were in the area of manufacturing. They were the abilities to design and manufacture products of high technical quality and to offer a broad range of products and attractive models. For the jewellery industry, competitive advantage was largely achieved through various aspects of design. The competitive strategy type most employed was the differentiation-based strategy. The proposed framework should be of value in integrating some of the diverse research in this area and suggesting specific relationships that might be the focus of future empirical studies.

The main aim of the chapter is to propose a conceptual approach for the creation, exploitation and building of a competitive advantage through which it would be possible to create a unique place from tourism space. In the chapter we present theoretical basement for the issue of competitive advantage at the level of places, its types, factors and approaches for its creating, building and exploiting. In the chapter we specify one main hypothesis and one research question. They are verified through several scientific, statistical and mathematical methods. These methods are used for the evaluation of primary and secondary research results. In the final part of the chapter, a conceptual approach for identification and exploitation of competitive advantage aimed at building unique and competitive places was proposed.

Indonesian woven craft small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have encountered several difficulties in sustaining their success in the digital era. The performance of the business is contingent upon its ability to gain competitive advantage through traditional knowledge capabilities. The purpose of this research is to study the role of traditional knowledge management processes towards competitive advantage and sustainable performance for woven craft SMEs.

This research used a quantitative approach with a survey strategy. Confirmatory research was conducted to test five hypotheses to determine the causal relationship of four variables, namely, traditional knowledge management, dynamic capabilities, competitive advantage and sustainable performance. This study used a purposive sampling strategy and gathered data from 385 respondents. The sample was selected based on predetermined criteria, including operation for more than five years and entrepreneurial activity using traditional knowledge as a resource to manage product innovation. The analytical technique used was structural equation modelling with the support of the AMOS programme.

The findings indicated that traditional knowledge management processes directly affect dynamic capabilities and sustainable performance. This study also found traditional knowledge management processes play a significant role in enhancing competitive advantage mediated by dynamic capabilities. However, traditional knowledge management processes have no significant effect on competitive advantage. Hence, there is a significant effect contributed by the relationship between traditional knowledge management processes and sustainable performance. Therefore, in the context of craft woven SMEs, the higher the traditional knowledge-based capabilities, the higher their sustainable performance.

The novelty shows a direct relationship between traditional knowledge management processes and sustainable performance. This study also found traditional knowledge management processes meditated by dynamic capabilities have a relationship with competitive advantage. Traditional knowledge management processes will trigger an increase in dynamic capability which is a source of business development; those conditions will increase sustainable performance. Traditional knowledge-based capability is an antecedent of sustainable performance. The benefits of this research can be used as scientific literature regarding the link between traditional knowledge management processes, competitive advantage and sustainable performance. The results of this study can also be used as a basis for empowering traditional woven craft SMEs in Indonesia.

To attain green economic efficiency, small, micro and medium-sized firms must follow environmental paradigms. This research aims to discover the relationship between green intellectual capital, green entrepreneurial orientation, green marketing, green organizational culture and competitive advantage strategies to attain sustainable manufacturing business success.

Today, many companies have accepted their responsibilities, that their operations should not harm the environment. This paper aims to discover the relationship between green factors and competitive advantage strategies to succeed in sustainable manufacturing. The employees of the large manufacturing firms in China are the sample population of the present investigation. Through simple random sampling, surveys were distributed via email. The present study was a quantitative analysis. The analytical tool utilized here was structural equation modeling and SmartPLS program applications.

The empirical outcomes find that green intellectual capital positively influences competitive advantages and sustainable success in business. In addition, the impact of green entrepreneurial orientation on competitive advantages and sustainable success is positive and significant. The findings illustrated that green marketing is an essential factor in competitive advantage and sustainable success in business. Another point is that green organizational culture positively affects competitive advantages and sustainable success. Finally, competitive advantages have significantly affected sustainable success in business.

The outcomes help specialists enhance their practices to reflect sustainable business efficiency and competitive advantages.

This is the first study that examined businesses' sustainable success and green factors in a comprehensive model and using a specific sample of manufacturing companies based on green technologies.

Supply chain control tower (SCCT) has emerged as a new tool for SC management. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of SCCT on the competitive advantage of the Jordanian Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (JPM) Organizations.

To actualize this study, the data are collected from 132 managers working at JPM Organizations by questionnaire. After confirming the normality, validity and reliability of the tool, descriptive analysis carried out, and the correlation between variables checked. Finally, the impact tested by multiple regressions.

The results show that the JPM organizations implement both SCCT elements and competitive advantage dimensions. Results show that there is a strong correlation among SCCT elements, among competitive advantage dimensions and between SCCT and competitive advantage. Finally, results indicate that SCCT has a significant positive effect on the total competitive advantage. SCCT affects quality, cost, reliability and responsiveness respectively; however, it does not have a significant effect on innovation.

The current study conducted on JPM Organizations. Therefore, to check results generalizability, it is recommended to conduct such research on other industries and countries.

Managers should apply SCCT, because it provides real-time information, which is visible to all partners. Therefore, SCCT has to be included within organizations’ vision, mission, strategies and implemented in daily practices.

SCCT helps to improve quality and reduce cost, which enhances the quality of life and society welfare.

This study may be considered as one of the few studies that tackle the issue of SCCT in pharmaceutical industry.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the effect of radical innovation and incremental innovation on the competitive advantage of Jordanian industrial companies and identify the moderating role of technological intensity.

For this study’s purposes, 303 questionnaires from employees of 30 manufacturing firms were analysed. Convergent validity and discriminant validity tests were performed through structural equation modelling in the Smart-PLS programme. Data reliability was confirmed. A bootstrapping technique was used to analyse the data. Multi-group analysis was performed to investigate the moderating role of technological intensity.

Empirical results showed that both radical innovation and incremental innovation explain 60.2% of the variance in competitive advantage and that both constructs have a statistically significant effect on competitive advantage. The results also revealed that the relationship between radical innovation and competitive advantage is modified through the high-tech industries. Meanwhile, the relationship between incremental innovation and competitive advantage is modified through the low-tech industries.

This cross-sectional study provides a snapshot at a given moment in time, a methodological limitation that affects the generalization of its results and the results are limited to one country, Jordan.

This study promotes the idea of focusing on radical and incremental innovation to enhance competitive advantage in the Jordanian manufacturing sector and knowing the effect of technological intensity in this relationship.

This study has important implications for leaders in the Jordanian manufacturing sector in general, as the study highlights the importance of radical innovation and incremental innovation to enhance the competitive advantage, especially in light of the technological intensity in this sector, and thus, increase the innovative capabilities of this firms, which leads to an increase in the level of competitive advantage.

This study aims to determine the simultaneous effect of exporting firms' competitive strategies and capabilities on the achievement of competitive advantages and export performance under the boundary conditions of competitive intensity. In so doing, the study combines the alternative theoretical lenses of the resource-based view (RBV) and the structure–conduct–performance (SCP) paradigm.

Primary data were obtained from 281 Turkish manufacturer–exporter firms operating in different sectors and located in several regions of the country. Structural equation modeling was utilized to test our conceptual framework, which combined the effects of RBV-based and SCP-based factors on competitive advantages and export performance under the moderating influence of competitive intensity.

This study reveals that unique firm capabilities, specifically informational, relational, and marketing capabilities, and competitive strategies, including differentiation and cost leadership, provide export firms with a competitive advantage and improve their export performance in foreign markets. Furthermore, competitive advantages partially mediate the effects of competitive strategies and unique firm capabilities on export performance. Finally, unexpectedly, and contrary to most of the existing literature, we find that competitive intensity negatively moderates the link between service advantages and export performance.

This research offers a comprehensive view of manufacturer–exporter firms' export performance by accounting for the overlooked simultaneous effect of firm capabilities and competitive strategies through the mediation of competitive advantages and under the boundary conditions of competitive intensity.