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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.

This article aims to examine the impact of multiple suppliers on competitive advantage by exploiting digital capabilities.

The author propose a structural equation model with the adopted measure from the literature. Hence, the study conducted an online survey in Indonesia with 450 qualified respondents involving managers and owner-managers.

The results indicate multiple suppliers help the firms to exploit digital capabilities, which foster them to achieve competitive advantage. Hence, different level of market turbulences determines the impact of numerous suppliers on competitive advantage. Specifically, the multiple-suppliers approach is more effective in supporting buyer firms to gain a competitive advantage during high market turbulence than low market turbulence.

This study offers empirical evidence with unit analysis of buyer firms that seek competitive advantage by exploiting digital capability. However, this approach focusses on a single unit analysis, which is buyer firms. Hence, there is an opportunity to adopt qualitative approach to explore the suppliers and end-users from different perspectives from other supply chain players.

This article contributes to the growing literature on the resource-based theory by examining the relationship between the multiple-sourcing model and competitive advantage. The authors also discuss the intersection between resource-based, dynamic capability and stakeholder theory.

This study aims to show how market orientation (MO), brand (BR) and business strategy (cost leadership strategy and differentiation strategy), which play mediating and moderating roles, respectively, can increase competitive advantage (CA). With a focus on brand, market orientation, cost leadership strategy (CS) and differentiation strategy (DS), as well as an analysis of variance control on varying business sizes per business seniority, the current study made a theoretical contribution.

An empirical study was created using a quantitative methodological technique. The surveyed data were collected from 379 managers or owners who participated in a face-to-face survey at different food processing companies in Vietnam. To test the hypotheses, the gathered information was examined utilizing multigroup analysis and partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The brand was found to have the greatest positive impact on competitive advantage, followed by a business strategy that positively influenced competitive advantage, and, finally, business strategies that significantly moderated the third strong positive impact between market orientation and competitive advantage. Market orientation has the fourth strong positive impact on competitive advantage, whereas brand has the lowest positive impact on market orientation.

This is the first investigation, according to the authors’ knowledge, into the role of market orientation as a mediator in the relationship between brand and competitive advantage in addition to the regulatory role of business strategy at two strategic levels: cost leadership and strategic focus as well as the difference between competitive advantage and market orientation in the Vietnamese food sector.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which firms in the Sri Lankan apparel industry practice supply-chain-resilience (SCRes) capabilities and examine whether SCRes practices affect the performance and competitive advantage of those firms.

Uses a conceptual framework to assess SCRes capabilities and to investigate their impact on firm performance and competitive advantage. Uses partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to quantitatively analyze questionnaire data collected from 89 Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers.

In the presence of SCRes capabilities in the apparel industry, this study finds that supply-chain risk-management culture positively affects SCRes capabilities, namely re-engineering, agility and collaboration. Agility shows the greatest influence on firm performance and competitive advantage.

This study is limited to the apparel industry sector (a manufacturing sector) in Sri Lanka to maintain the uniformity of the research constructs.

Results imply that management should pay more attention to enhancing SCRMC and prioritizing their SCRes capabilities.

This study is the first to assess SCRes capabilities in the apparel-manufacturing sector and examine the impact of SCRes capabilities on firm performance and competitive advantage.

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.

This paper aims to assess the existing situation of psychological empowerment to employees and explore the relationship between psychological empowerment and competitive advantages in service sector of Nepal.

The study followed descriptive cum exploratory research design. Data collected through structured questionnaire based on Menon’s three-component model and Wright’s four-component model used to measure psychological employment and competitive advantages from employees of banking and hospital sector.

Psychological empowerment of employees in service sector is significantly different between public and private organizations. Even though the factors that are extracted are quite different than of Western practices, psychological empowerment has positive and significant impact on the competitive advantages.

This study is mainly based on service sector of Nepal: Banking and Hospital.

This paper is useful to academicians and practitioners seeking to develop psychological empowerment to achieve competitive advantages in their organizations and help to add values in people management areas particularly in South Asian corporations.

This is perhaps the very first investigation of its kind in the Nepalese context.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implications of supply chain strategies that manufacturing companies can use to minimise or overcome natural resource scarcity, and ultimately improve resource efficiency and achieve competitive advantage. The relationship between resource efficiency and competitive advantage is also explored.

The proposed research model draws on resource dependence theory. Data were collected from 183 logistics, purchasing, sustainability and supply chain managers from various manufacturing companies and analysed by applying the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique.

The results indicate that both buffering and bridging strategies improve resource efficiency; however, only bridging strategies seem to lead to firm’s competitive advantage in terms of ownership and accessibility to resources. The relationship between resource efficiency and competitive advantage is not supported.

Future research could confirm the robustness of these findings by using a larger sample size and taking into account other supply chain members.

This research provides guidance to managers faced with the growing risk of resource scarcity to achieve a resource efficient supply chain and an advantage over competitors.

Studies have explored the appropriate strategies for minimising dependencies caused by the scarcity of natural resources in the field of supply chain management; however, there is limited empirical work on investigating the impact of these strategies on resource efficiency and competitive advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how emerging market firms create competitive advantage through innovation. The study through the upper echelon theory and the power distance cultural perspective examines the mediating role of organisational leadership in the innovation and competitive advantage relationships.

Data were collected from the service sectors of two emerging economies, i.e. India and Ghana. Robust standard error regressions were run at two levels. First, at the specific country level and later on the aggregated level for robustness check.

The results show that in both India and Ghana, innovation largely relates positively with competitive advantage. In specific terms, market innovation was found to be the most significant determinant of competitive advantage in both contexts. Additionally, organisational leadership was also found to be mediating between innovation and competitive advantage in both contexts independently and collectively to confirm the effect of power distance and leadership role in such cultures.

The current study looks at only two emerging markets with high power distance cultures. The implication is that the impact of leadership may differ in emerging economies with low power distance.

The current study looks beyond the mundane relationship between financial performance measures and innovation to assess innovation and competitive advantage in emerging markets context, which has not received the needed attention. It further explains how emerging markets firms can ride on the back of power distance to create a competitive advantage with their innovation development and implementation through organisational innovation leadership. The study offers that the maximum exploitation of the beneficial effect of innovation – competitive advantage – in service firms can only be achieved when leaders spearhead the innovation process and see it through implementation.