Sustainable Competitive Performance Research Articles

How knowledge assets lead to a sustainable competitive advantage: are organizational capabilities a missing link?

Even though knowledge assets have been widely recognized as the principal drivers of firm's competitive advantage, few are the frameworks that have explained how these strategic assets are transformed into value and how the value creation process occurs. Also there is a confusing terminology in the literature surrounding many concepts explaining the dynamics of value creation. By conducting a Systematic Review – an evidence-based methodology for theory building – this paper seeks to define a ‘common language’ of the concepts used to explain this phenomenon, and build the assumptions of a theoretical model that explains how knowledge assets, through learning mechanisms, are linked, renewed, and leveraged into socio-technical processes or organizational routines, that in turn form the basis of organizational capabilities. As they are socially constructed, these organizational capabilities, when leveraged into products and services, generate value and provide firms with a sustainable competitive advantage and long-term superior performance. The model should therefore serve as a theoretical contribution to the literature and it has a further potential benefit to begin an inquiry, for both theory building and management, about the nature of firm's knowledge assets and organizational capabilities, and the sources of sustainable competitive advantage. Some of these avenues are outlined in this paper.

Innovation in NTBFs: Does leadership really matter?

Innovation is considered to be a key contributor to both the long-term survival and development of superior competitiveness in New Technology-based Firms [NTBFs]. Many factors contribute to a firm’s differential innovation performance. According to the resource-based view of the firm, leadership is one of the key contributory resources. In this article, the relationship between innovation, leadership and performance is examined through a study of 194 NTBFs. The results suggest that the level of innovation, the likelihood of success and the development of the competences needed for effective innovation are influenced by the firm’s leadership style. In particular, it was found that the transformational/human resources leadership style is more conducive to innovation and the introduction of new products, whereas transactional leadership tends to be associated with the modification of existing products. The findings outline the attributes of each leadership style associated with innovation and provide practical guidelines to enable senior managers to consider leadership in the formulation and deployment of their innovation plan. Finally, the analysis indicates the need to consider and align leadership and approaches to innovation in order to achieve sustainable competitive performance.

The Rationale for Strategic Alliances: An Empirical Study

ABSTRACT The use of strategic alliances is growing as acquisitions and mergers often under-perform expectations. This research looks at the literature on strategic alliances to gain an understanding of the rationale for strategic alliances, organizational propensity to enter into strategic alliances and their effect on sustainable competitive advantage. The methodology is qualitative, based on twelve case studies of organizations, with five out-performing the industry and five under-performing. The cases are structured around the value chain and modified grounded theory is used to analyze the data and to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. A wider range of reasons for entering alliances is substantiated and the theory concerning organizational propensity to enter into strategic alliances is supported. Strategic alliances are being used to perform many value chain functions as organizations are lacking in both capabilities and resources. These are being accessed by using strategic alliances in the search for differentiation, sustainable competitive advantage and superior performance.

Measuring the relationship between total quality management and sustainable competitive advantage: A resource-based view

Does a total quality management (TQM) initiative have any effect on the firm's performance? What are the variables that exert this influence? Which elements have the greatest effects? All these issues are discussed widely in the literature on strategy and quality. The objective of this paper is to approach the study of these problems from a resource-based perspective. From this viewpoint, the effects of TQM on performance are explained through the resources and competencies that the implementation of this strategy generates. The adoption of this perspective implies guiding the research towards the identification of strategic resources and core competencies that are generated by a TQM initiative. This issue has hardly been touched by previous research in the quality literature. We propose an investigation design and methodology based on the elaboration of a structural equation model. This model will allow us to contrast the extent to which these TQM-linked resources and competencies are sources of sustainable competitive advantage and better performance. This paper presents wide empirical research on industrial and service firms, which confirms our causal model. To develop this research, a TQM measurement instrument and a competencies measurement instrument were elaborated.

Resource‐based theory and strategic logistics research

Despite calls for more theoretical and strategically oriented work in logistics, the resource‐based theory of the firm (RBT), and the related capabilities approach ‐ which represent a dominant stream of research in strategic management over the last decade ‐ have not been prominent in the logistics literature. Provides a critical review of the large literature on the RBT and suggests areas where it can be applied to strategically‐oriented logistics research. Describes the resource‐based theory of the firm, its major assumptions, and its implications for strategic actions. Also discusses other areas of research where the RBT have been applied. Illustrates how the RBT represents the underlying theoretical support for one of the central propositions of strategic logistics: that a distinctive logistics capability is a source of sustainable competitive advantage and superior performance. Suggests that strategic logistics research may benefit from combining the RBT with organizational learning theory and evolutionary approaches to competition.