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The purpose of this study is to theoretically and empirically advance a concept of competitive antecedents to absorptive capacity (AC) research and to explain their relationship to a firm’s innovative performance. A firm’s competitive antecedents involve a relative advantage in a firm’s ability to access external knowledge – (i.e. relative advantage in external knowledge flows) – and a relative advantage in appropriating these external knowledge flows (i.e. relative advantage in appropriability regime).

By drawing on network and market share explanations, hypotheses were developed in which a firm’s AC is argued to mediate the influence of these competitive antecedents on a firm’s innovations. In using linear and negative binomial estimation methods, a mediation analysis of the US biotechnology industry was conducted.

A firm’s competitive antecedents have a positive influence on a firm’s AC and that these influences indirectly impact a biotechnology firm’s product innovations.

While a firm’s innovation is widely attributed to its AC, this study’s concept of competitive antecedents shows that a firm’s competitive advantage lies upstream from its AC.

This paper aims to propose a new theoretical model based on the AAR framework (actor bonds, activity links and resource ties) to examine the effects of the identified buyer‐supplier relationship elements on four indicators of relative competitive advantage for the buyer firm.

The paper bases its findings on data gathered through a survey of 216 key informants within the Australian manufacturing sector. AMOS v. 18 is used to perform confirmatory factor analysis and to estimate a structural model of the proposed hypotheses.

The paper finds support for the notion that actor bonds between the firm and its largest supplier provide a source of competitive advantage that result in higher relative customer satisfaction, innovation, market efficiency and market effectiveness for the buyer firm. The paper also supports the notion that a positive relationship between information sharing and asset efficiency exists.

This paper demonstrates that the maintenance of positive relationships with the firm's largest supplier has implications for the firm in terms of its competitive outcomes. There is now more support for managers when building and maintaining relationships with important suppliers since there are potential implications for the firm's own competitive position.

The findings of this study extend previous research in the area of relationship marketing by providing a new link between relationship elements and direct competitive outcomes in a follow‐on market. It also shows that these elements have differential effects on these competitive outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine direct effects of quality management on competitive advantage within the context of the resource-based view of a firm.

Survey data have been obtained from 288 general managers of luxury hotels in Egypt. The authors have used six dimensions and 22 indicators of quality management, two indicators of competitive advantage that manifest the hotel’s above average financial performance relative to competitors within the study sample, and a multi-group analysis in structural equation modeling (SEM).

The results indicate that quality management may be a source of competitive advantage. Top management leadership and supplier management differentiate hotels with above average financial performance from its competitors. The role of customer focus and employee management in generating competitive advantage is questionable while process management and quality data and reporting may not contribute to achieving competitive advantage.

Only direct effects of quality management on competitive advantage are examined within the context of a luxury hotel industry in Egypt. Similar studies within other contexts and models that study indirect effects of quality management on competitive advantage with factors that might moderate these effects are needed. Future studies could compare effects of quality management on competitive advantage with effects of quality management on other business outcomes.

The results may inform management decision making concerning the development of capabilities that may generate competitive advantage.

The current study contributes in providing further evidence that may contribute to enhancing the understanding and knowledge of the relationship between quality management and competitive advantage.

This study contributes to the debate on strategic value of quality management and resource-based sources of competitive advantage. Methodologically, this study shows an alternative approach to measuring competitive advantage and indicates that applying a multi-group analysis in SEM may contribute to producing original results.

Though Blockchain has been studied in numerous contexts, the understanding of the impacts of Blockchain in achieving competitive advantages remains unexplored. Many industries, organizations and firms are still in a “wait and see” mode. This study aims at examining the effects of the technological, organizational and environmental factors drawn from the TOE framework in generating competitive advantage.

A dual-staged deep learning structural equation modeling artificial neural network analysis was conducted on 211 samples of small and medium enterprises. Four neural network models were engaged to rank the normalized importance of each of the predictor variables.

The research model can expound 57.99 and 47.33% of the variance in Blockchain adoption and competitive advantage correspondingly. The study successfully identified nonlinear relationships. The theoretical and managerial contributions are useful to scholars and practitioners such as industrial players, investors, chief executive officers (CEOs), managers, decision-makers and other stakeholders that intend to use Blockchain technology.

Unlike the existing technological–organizational–environmental (TOE) framework that uses a linear model and theoretically assumes that all relationships are linear, this has been the first study, which has successfully validated that there exist nonlinear relationships in the TOE framework. Further, very little has been theorized on the impacts of Blockchain adoption on competitive advantage, especially in the context of SMEs. Therefore, this study is the first one to provide the necessary theoretical foundation that may further extend the current knowledge of Blockchain technology adoption and its impacts.

Firms are adopting strategies to advance product quality and environmental sustainability to achieve improved profitability and shareholders’ wealth. The study investigates strategies that create a superior quality performance to competitors and improve both environmental and business performances. This paper explores the direct and indirect influence of lean management and environmental practices on relative competitive quality advantage, environmental performance and business performance.

The study uses a quantitative method where data is gathered from 259 manufacturing firms in Ghana. The data is gathered through customized questionnaires. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (SmartPLS 3.2.8) is used to analyze the data. Firm size, industry type and importance of environmental issues are used as control variables in this study.

The findings of the study indicate that both lean management and environmental practices create relative competitive quality advantage and improve environmental performance and business performance. Environmental performance and relative competitive quality advantage mediate the influence of lean management and environmental practices on business performance. The results further indicate that lean management creates a higher relative competitive quality advantage than environmental practices, while environmental practices have more potency to enhance environmental performance than lean management.

The study develops and proposes a comprehensive theoretical framework that examines the potency of environmental practices and lean management in creating a relative competitive quality advantage and improving environmental performance and business performance from a Ghanaian perspective, which is an emerging economy in Africa. Lean management and environmental practices may jointly help firms create relative competitive advantage and improve environmental performance to enhance business performance.

National competitive advantage is a model which is widely taught in business schools but there has been limited research into its usefulness for managers and policy makers in particular economies and industries. This research looks at New Zealand, and in particular its wine industry as a context for the national competitive advantage model. The literature discusses the influence that both organisational resources and national competitive advantage have on organisational performance and profitability, examining such factors as domestic demand, the factors of production, related and supporting industry, the nature of domestic rivalry and how organisations are developed and managed. The data was gathered from CEO's of wineries, plus industry and national reports on the performance of the wine industry and the New Zealand economy. The research found that New Zealand suffers from policy inconsistencies, poor performance of senior management and competitive disadvantage in research and development, licensing, value chain management, regional sales and international distribution. Also, new knowledge created in Universities and Research Centres is not being transferred adequately to new and growing firms. However, it performs well in terms of competition policy, taxation and trade liberalisation. The New Zealand wine industry has both extensive and intense competition, has limited access to venture capital and does not have effective cluster development. There is considerable work to be done by the wine industry in terms of developing human capital and innovation if it is to remain internationally competitive. Also, it is essential to work co‐operatively in international markets and to identify clearly defined target market segments.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a quantitative model to help managers diagnose what dynamic capabilities a firm needs to address the demands of a rapidly changing environment.

A two-firm model based on the VRIO framework is built using quantitative techniques to assist top management in formulating and implementing strategies regarding when and how to develop a firm’s dynamic capabilities for achieving a competitive advantage. This model is developed by considering both internal and external competences, with the former measured by the features of the organizational capabilities of the focal firm and latter evaluated by comparing the relative utilities of the dynamic capabilities of the two competing firms.

Three resource allocation strategies are introduced to guide a firm to leverage dynamic capability that generates strong organizational performance. The first two strategies are, respectively, synergy oriented, focussing on acquiring various knowledge or experiences of a capability, and uniqueness oriented, emphasizing the depth of knowledge and technology of the capabilities. The third one is a hybrid of the first two strategies.

The proposed model is useful to help top management determine how and when to renew, bundle, and leverage resources and capabilities in a dynamic environment. It enables decision makers to detect changes in the competitive environment and take corrective action in a timely and appropriate manner.

Competitive advantage is perhaps the most widely used term in strategic management, yet it remains poorly defined and operationalized. This paper makes three observations regarding competitive advantage and conceptually explores the various patterns of relationship between competitive advantage and firm performance. First, competitive advantage does not equate to superior performance. Second, competitive advantage is a relational term. Third, it is context‐specific. This paper examines three patterns of relationship between competitive advantage and firm performance: 1) competitive advantage leading to superior performance; 2) competitive advantage without superior performance, and 3) superior performance without competitive advantage. The ultimate purpose of this article is to help generate a healthy debate among strategy scholars on the usefulness of the competitive advantage construct for our theory building and testing. This paper proposes that we re‐examine the notion of competitive advantage and formally assess its usefulness for theory building and testing in the field of Strategic Management. The notion of competitive advantage has been a cornerstone of our field. As such, research on competitive advantage occupies a central position in strategy literature (e.g., Porter, 1980, 1985; Rumelt, 1984, 1987; Barney, 1986, 1991; Ghemawat, 1986, 1991; Peteraf, 1993; Teece, Pisano, & Shuen, 1997). However, the notion of competitive advantage itself has rarely been systematically addressed and, to date, remains poorly defined and operationalized. Is competitive advantage what it takes to compete, a characterization observed during competition, or an outcome of competition? Is competitive advantage contingent on the competitive situation or is it a more general trait of the firm? Put differently, how is competitive advantage different from competence, strengths and, ultimately, performance? This article, addressing the above questions, makes three observations regarding competitive advantage. First, competitive advantage does not equate to (superior) performance. Second, competitive advantage is a relational construct. Third, competitive advantage is context‐specific. In presenting these three observations, this article proposes suggestions to refine and operationalize “competitive advantage.” It then conceptually explores the relationship between competitive advantage and performance, which is argued to be much more complex than it is currently being treated in the literature. Concluding remarks follow.

This paper aims to propose a new model and examine how night market entrepreneurs have achieved a competitive advantage in strongly competitive markets.

Two statistics methods, multiple regression analysis and structural equation models (SEM), were used to test the hypotheses for a sample of 346 vendor cases.

The results indicate that competitive aggressiveness and being proactive are positively related to risk-taking among night market vendors, which, in turn, has a positive effect on innovativeness. Further, the findings also indicate that risk-taking positively influences innovativeness and, in a mediating role, also affects competitive advantages through innovativeness.

Results of this study suggest that if night market entrepreneurs demonstrate innovativeness, positively develop new products and new services and attract customers to buy them, then they will have unique and attractiveness in the night markets, thus giving themselves relative competitive advantage.

This research is the first comprehensive examination of entrepreneurship among night market entrepreneurs to study the competitive advantages of different facets, which may provide a benchmark for future studies.

The purpose of this paper is to study the competitiveness of the stock markets in ASEAN 5, which are the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), the Singapore Exchange (SGX), Bursa Malaysia (BM), the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), and the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

This research applies Porter’s (1990) diamond model to analyze the competitiveness and the data were collected from World Economic Forum, International Institute for Management Development, the World Federation of Exchanges database, and DataStream.

The results show that SGX is the most competitive exchange in ASEAN 5 region. It dominates other exchanges in every dimension. It gains its reputation for being the region’s most prominent exchange, followed by BM, SET, IDX, and the PSE, respectively.

The results of this investigation provide rank for competitiveness of stock exchanges among ASEAN 5 and identify the way to improve its competitive position.

It is useful for public and private sectors involved in the development and policy making to promote funding and investment efficiency of the exchanges. It will be benefit to establish the well-planned development strategy and policy to build up the competitive advantage of the nations.

Identifying and benchmarking the competitiveness of the stock markets in ASEAN economies. By using Diamond Model, the authors propose indicators to assess the competitiveness of the stock markets in ASEAN 5 countries. Assessing the competitiveness of the ASEAN stock markets in this paper will lead us to better understand about each country’s strengths and weaknesses and to promote a mutual collaboration among the region toward ASEAN Economic Community.