Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Strategy & International Business

Introduction There has been a rapid modification in the business environment in the past decade as a result of privatization and globalization leading to difference in company’s strategies. A strategy can be defined in many ways and has many different viewpoints. This article aims to explain and critically evaluate the approaches of Jay Barney and Michael E. Porter, two leading strategy theorists, in-turn explaining the basis leading to the difference. 
 What is Strategy & Competitive Advantage? Strategy is the creation of unique and valuable position involving a different set of activities.1

A firm is said to have competitive advantage when it is implementing a strategy which is not is being implemented by it’s current or potential competitors and also sustains profits that exceed the average for it’s industry.

"

Is Competitive Advantage enough? The goal of much of business strategy is to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage which is the same as competitive advantage but the advantages of the strategy cannot be duplicated by the competitors. (Barney, 1989). Different authors have different viewpoint in regard to sustainable competitive advantage. A sustained competitive advantage is simply a competitive advantage that lasts for a longer period of calendar time (Porter, 1985). A competitive advantage is sustained only after the efforts to duplicate the advantages of the strategy have been ceased (Lippman and Rumelt,1982).

"

Michael Porter’s Viewpoint Sustainable competitive advantage is when a strategy is implemented and the same strategy is not being implemented by the current or potential competitor and that advantage lasts for a longer period of time. For example, BIC, the pen manufacturing company, has over the years manufactured and sold narrow line of standard and economical pens to virtually all the consumer markets via all available channels, thus it’s strategy is focused on consistency,...