Nature Of Competitive Advantage Research Articles

Формування конкурентної переваги авіакомпанії на підставі реалізації бортового харчування

Анотація. У роботі була надана характеристика сутності конкурентних переваг. В статті обґрунтовується необхідність реалізації конкурентних переваг на ринку пасажирських авіаперевезень. Пропонується формування конкурентних переваг на основі бортового харчування та обґрунтовується привабливість таких переваг. У роботі аналізується ринок бортового харчування. Досліджуються особливості надання послуги бортового харчування в Україні. В статті виявляються основні проблеми та недоліки ринку бортового харчування в Україні. На основі проведених досліджень пропонуються заходи щодо перетворення недоліків ринку бортового харчування в конкурентну перевагу авіакомпаній. Реалізація запропонованих заходів дасть змогу авіаперевізнику якісно покращити свій імідж, мати особливу рису, яка буде значно посилювати попит на послуги підприємства, що характерно виділить авіапідприємство серед конкурентів і дасть змогу пасажиру втомити голод та отримати бажаний, в постмодерністському суспільстві, комфорт. А вже комфорт пасажирів є великою конкурентною перевагою авіаперевізника.
 Метою даної статті є теоретичне обґрунтування та розробка практичних рекомендацій заходів щодо формування конкурентних переваг авіакомпаній на основі реалізації бортового харчування. Актуальність обраної теми обумовлена насиченою конкурентною боротьбою авіакомпаній на ринку України, необхідністю компаній виборювати найменші переваги в той час, коли, на провідне направлення формування конкурентної переваги в світі, бортове харчування, зовсім не звертається увага.
 Наукову новизну отриманих результатів складає розроблення рекомендацій щодо використання бортового харчування як елемента конкурентної боротьби. Практична цінність полягає у можливості використання рекомендацій на всіх авіапідприємствах України.
 Ключові слова: конкурентна перевага, конкурентна боротьба, бортове харчування, кейтерінг, пасажирські авіаперевезення.

Comprehensive scientific and technical programs as a vector of education development in the digital economy

New global challenges in the development of the economy, and as a result, in education, have led to changes in the requirements for forms and methods of teaching, for the content of educational programs, which requires the involvement of a wider range of practitioners and the adaptation of education to the standards of the digital economy. Under the influence of globalization processes, both the nature of the international competitiveness of countries and the nature of competitive advantages are changing, focusing on human capital, new forms of management, digital information. The vector of development of education is integrated scientific and technical programs that unite educational and scientific organizations with enterprises of the real sector. To this end, on the basis of higher education institutions, whose main goal is to provide professional personnel for the territory, scientific education centres are created that contribute to the introduction of an innovative approach to solving socio-economic problems of the region, provide comprehensive support for innovative initiatives of entrepreneurs and organizations, and methodological and consulting support for subjects small and medium businesses on the development of innovative entrepreneurial projects.

Do environmentally sustainable practices make hotels more efficient? A study of major hotels in Sri Lanka

As environmentally sustainable practices are becoming popular in the hotel industry, their impact on efficiency is an important issue. To investigate the performance of hotels in this context, we use data envelopment analysis (DEA) double bootstrap approach to firstly assess the technical efficiency and its determinants of a sample of medium and large scale hotels in Sri Lanka for the period 2010–2014. Secondly, we evaluate the impact of a number of explanatory variables in determining hotel efficiency. The results reveal that the average technical efficiency is 61% with the maximum being 71.5% and the minimum 46.8%. The results conclude that being environmentally responsible enhances the efficiency of hotels, specifically in terms of improving energy efficiency and waste management. Water consumption is shown to have a contradictory result in relation of improving efficiency. Finally, we estimate the bootstrapped Malmquist productivity index to examine the level of productivity in the Sri Lankan hotel industry. The results of this study provide hotel operators and government with insights into the nature of competitive advantage which can assist them with strategic decision making to improve the technical and environmental management of hotels.

Competitiveness and sustainable growth analysis of the EU countries with the use of Global Indexes' methodology

The issue of countries' competitiveness and sustainable economic growth is constantly at the centre of interest and represents the frequent object of research in economic theory as well as economic practice. The multi-criterial approach and the assessment methodologies relating to the global competitiveness have been dynamically adjusted over the recent years to reflect the current globalization trends in the world economy. The main objective of this study is to analyse the objectivity and resulting values' deviations of the Global competitiveness Index (GCI) and World Competitiveness Index (WCI) composite indexes that are currently considered to be the world's most respected and to identify the impact of key factors that affect the countries' competitive positions with a focus on Slovakia. The research study is realized within the group of EU (24) countries for the period 2006 – 2016. The partial objective is to summarize the main starting points of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Institute for Management Development (IMD) composing these indices, to identify their common features and different approaches that create differences in the results achieved. Then we analyzed the differences between the resulting rankings and the resulting scores of the GCI and WCI rated countries. In the next part, we focused on analyzing the position of Slovakia using the correlation and multiple regression analysis and identifying the interrelationships between individual pillars and the GCI score in order to determine the impact of key factors that influence the competitive position and sustainable growth of Slovakia and improve or worsen its position. Our results highlighted the economic and statistical context of GCI Slovakia development and the impact of the following key pillars and key factors: pillar P1 (P1: Institutions – Public trust in politicians), pillar P3 (P3: Macroeconomic environment – Government debt) and pillar P11 (P11: Business sophistication – Nature of competitive advantage). All three pillars, identified as crucial to the development of the overall Slovakias' GCI scores, occupy unflattering positions in the comparison of pillar rankings. Therefore, we conclude that it is necessary to clarify the causes of their development and eliminate these identified factors as soon as possible. The results can be seen as beneficial to countries' economic policies in increasing global competitiveness.

The rate and potential of capability development trajectories

This paper examines differences in the rate and potential of firms' capability development trajectories. Capability development trajectories are the paths over which firms' capabilities change with experience and other activities. While prior research focused on factors affecting capability development rate (the fraction of the gap between a firm's current and potential capability eliminated with each unit of activity), we argue that capability development trajectories also differ in potential (the maximum capability level a firm could achieve through repeating a given set of activities over time). We develop and estimate a formal model of capability development, showing that larger underwriting projects lead to a lower rate of improvement toward higher potential capabilities, and derive implications for research on industry dynamics and the nature of competitive advantage.

Strategic investment under uncertainty: A synthesis

Investment is a central theme in economics, finance, and operational research. Traditionally, the focus of analysis has been either on assessing the value of flexibility (investment under uncertainty) or on describing commitment effects in competitive settings (industrial organization). Research contributions addressing the intersection of investment under uncertainty and industrial organization have become numerous in recent years. In this paper, we provide an overview aimed at categorizing and relating these research streams. We highlight managerial insights concerning the nature of competitive advantage (first- versus second-mover advantage), the manner in which information is revealed, firm heterogeneity, capital increment size, and the number of competing firms.

Developing regional tourism in China: The potential for activating business clusters in a socialist market economy

In China, there are significant inequalities in income distribution between inland and coastal regions. Tourism is regarded as one means of fostering regional economic development and ameliorating these inequalities. Many inland destinations possess natural advantages that could form the basis for regional competitive advantage in the presence of necessary other conditions, but have experienced difficulty in drawing both domestic and international visitors away from the popular coastal gateways. This paper considers the nature of competitive advantage and the applicability of Porter's (1990. The competitive advantage of nations. London: Macmillan Press) theory in an emerging market economy. The development of regional tourism clusters based on Porter's (1998. On competition. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press) model may be a way of fostering competitive advantage in regional China. This is especially relevant with recent policy events, including the emergence of the ‘West Development’ initiative. The potential for the development of regional tourism clusters is explored in this paper, which finds that while Porter's model is theoretically applicable, there is much work to be done at a micro-business level in fostering cluster development.

Sustainable competitive advantage in electronic business: towards a contingency perspective on the resource-based view

Our understanding of the nature of competitive advantage has not been helped by a tendency for theorists to adopt a unitary position, suggesting, for example, that advantage is industry based or resource based. In examining the nature of competitive advantage in an electronic business (e-business) environment this paper adopts a contingency perspective. Several intriguing questions emerge. Do 'new economy' companies have different resource profiles to 'old economy' companies? Are the patterns of resource development and accumulation different? Are attained advantages less sustainable for e-businesses? These are the kinds of themes examined in this paper. The literature on competitive advantage is reviewed as are the challenges posed by the recent changes in the business environment.Two broad sets of firms are identified as emerging out of the e-business shake up and the resource profiles of these firms are discussed. Several research propositions are advanced and the implications for research and practice are discussed.

What became of the New Economy?

Over the past five years, there have been widespread claims — not only that there is a ‘new economy’ but that a new economy requires new economics. This article reviews the claims of this kind which have been made in three principal areas — in the measurement of economic statistics and in macroeconomic management, in company and stock market valuations, and in the nature of competitive advantage and the origins of business success. In each of these areas, it finds little basis for believing that revolutionary, rather than evolutionary, change is required. Indeed the application of well established economic principles and concepts might have saved investors, commentators, and those whose job it is to manage the economy, from costly mistakes

The resource‐based view of the firm: some stumbling‐blocks on the road to understanding sustainable competitive advantage

The resource‐based view of the firm (RBV) is an important, emerging theory of firm heterogeneity. It is well grounded in industrial economics and has benefited in its development from a multiplicity of contributions by management writers. But like any developing body of knowledge, it is not short of confusion, ambiguity and conceptual and empirical difficulties. This paper provides an integrated review of the resource‐based view of the firm in an effort to eliminate much of the ambiguity caused by weak taxonomies and the inconsistent and conflicting use of terminology. It provides a detailed insight into the logic of the RBV and illuminates its contributions to the debate on the nature of competitive advantage. The paper then evaluates the status of some ongoing debates that are germane to our understanding of competitive advantage and outlines prospective directions for the development of the resource‐based view.