Towards an Understanding of the Sources
of Sustainable Competitive Advantage:
A Literature Review and Conceptual
Framework
Nihal El Daly
Abstract
While the concept of sustainable competitive advantage is
pivotal to firm success and the subject of much debate in
the literature, empirical research investigating it is limited,
and few frameworks reflect the divergence of perspectives
on the matter. This article aims to advance the understanding of the sources of sustainable competitive
advantage by critically spanning a large part of the
literature on this subject and synthesizing the findings in a
conceptual framework. The review covers perspectives
starting from the industry-based explanations of industrial
economists such as Porter (1980) to the resource-based
explanations favoured by many such as Barney (1991), to
more market-oriented views (Day 1994; De Wit and
Meyer 2005). The Resource Based View (RBV) is
discussed in detail as making a key contribution to
developing and delivering competitive advantage (Chaharbaghi and Lynch 1999). The research also covers the
more recent insights from the Dynamic Capabilities
Thinking, inspired by the rising pressure on businesses
to evolve rapidly in an increasingly complex and dynamic
environment, reinforcing the importance of the firm’s
ability to renew its resources and capabilities in light of
market dynamics (Tondolo and Bitencourt 2014). The
resulting conceptual framework will be empirically tested
and further addressed in subsequent work.
Keywords
Sustainable competitive advantage Á
Advantage-creating resources Á The resource
based view
1 Introduction
Competitive advantage is one of the most lasting themes in
the strategic management literature. The correlation of superior performance to the existence of competitive advantage has fuelled the search for Sustainable Competitive
Advantage as a dominant theme in the study of firm strategy
for many years (Chaharbaghi and Lynch 1999). A wide
array of different perspectives exists on the determinants of
competitive advantage, starting from the industry-based
explanations of industrial economists such as Porter (1980)
to the resource-based explanations favoured by many
authors such as Barney (1991), to more market-oriented
views (Day 1994; De Wit and Meyer 2005). In recent years,
the Resource Based View (RBV) of the firm has also been
recognised as making a key contribution to developing and
delivering competitive advantage (Chaharbaghi and Lynch
1999), and will be an important starting point for this
research where we explore the sources of Sustainable
Competitive Advantage (SCA). Despite the proven link
between high profitability relative to competitors and the
possession of competitive advantage according to Thomas
(1986) and Grant (1998) (as cited in Sigalas and Economou
2013), it is surprising that the concept of SCA, a “cornerstone concept in strategic management”, is relatively new
and poorly defined in the literature (Sigalas and Economou
2013).
This article aims to provide a better understanding of the
sources of SCA by spanning a large part of the literature on
this subject, comparing and contrasting the major views and
summarising the findings in a conceptual framework which
N. El Daly (&)
Maastricht School of Management, Maastricht, The Netherlands
e-mail: nihaleldaly@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
M. Mateev and J. Nightingale (eds.), Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility—Volume 1,
Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32922-8_30
299
of Sustainable Competitive Advantage:
A Literature Review and Conceptual
Framework
Nihal El Daly
Abstract
While the concept of sustainable competitive advantage is
pivotal to firm success and the subject of much debate in
the literature, empirical research investigating it is limited,
and few frameworks reflect the divergence of perspectives
on the matter. This article aims to advance the understanding of the sources of sustainable competitive
advantage by critically spanning a large part of the
literature on this subject and synthesizing the findings in a
conceptual framework. The review covers perspectives
starting from the industry-based explanations of industrial
economists such as Porter (1980) to the resource-based
explanations favoured by many such as Barney (1991), to
more market-oriented views (Day 1994; De Wit and
Meyer 2005). The Resource Based View (RBV) is
discussed in detail as making a key contribution to
developing and delivering competitive advantage (Chaharbaghi and Lynch 1999). The research also covers the
more recent insights from the Dynamic Capabilities
Thinking, inspired by the rising pressure on businesses
to evolve rapidly in an increasingly complex and dynamic
environment, reinforcing the importance of the firm’s
ability to renew its resources and capabilities in light of
market dynamics (Tondolo and Bitencourt 2014). The
resulting conceptual framework will be empirically tested
and further addressed in subsequent work.
Keywords
Sustainable competitive advantage Á
Advantage-creating resources Á The resource
based view
1 Introduction
Competitive advantage is one of the most lasting themes in
the strategic management literature. The correlation of superior performance to the existence of competitive advantage has fuelled the search for Sustainable Competitive
Advantage as a dominant theme in the study of firm strategy
for many years (Chaharbaghi and Lynch 1999). A wide
array of different perspectives exists on the determinants of
competitive advantage, starting from the industry-based
explanations of industrial economists such as Porter (1980)
to the resource-based explanations favoured by many
authors such as Barney (1991), to more market-oriented
views (Day 1994; De Wit and Meyer 2005). In recent years,
the Resource Based View (RBV) of the firm has also been
recognised as making a key contribution to developing and
delivering competitive advantage (Chaharbaghi and Lynch
1999), and will be an important starting point for this
research where we explore the sources of Sustainable
Competitive Advantage (SCA). Despite the proven link
between high profitability relative to competitors and the
possession of competitive advantage according to Thomas
(1986) and Grant (1998) (as cited in Sigalas and Economou
2013), it is surprising that the concept of SCA, a “cornerstone concept in strategic management”, is relatively new
and poorly defined in the literature (Sigalas and Economou
2013).
This article aims to provide a better understanding of the
sources of SCA by spanning a large part of the literature on
this subject, comparing and contrasting the major views and
summarising the findings in a conceptual framework which
N. El Daly (&)
Maastricht School of Management, Maastricht, The Netherlands
e-mail: nihaleldaly@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
M. Mateev and J. Nightingale (eds.), Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility—Volume 1,
Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32922-8_30
299