Additional Attributes for Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Introduction

In a world where companies are experiencing stiff competition, there is a need for a company to take action for survival. This means acting uniquely to enable it to stand out in business. In this case, the business will have an advantage over its competitors in terms of operations, production and even delivery of services, and it will, in turn, attract more customers. A company’s competitive advantage lies in the company’s resources, which comprise four attributes. The Resource Based View Theory of 1980 evaluates a company’s internal resources as they contribute to building a company’s reputation and strengthening its financial status (Miller, 2019). Usually, internal resources/factors of a company have the potential to positively or negatively influence its image or overall success. Thus, it is important to evaluate each resource to identify the ones that are likely to give the company a competitive advantage.

Discussion

For a company to have a sustainable competitive advantage in this global market, its resources should possess these four attributes (Dess, 2021a). First, the company’s resources must be scarce/rare; it refers to the unavailability of the given resource such that competitors cannot access it. Thus, it will remain a resource unique to the company, making it way better than the competitors. Secondly, a resource should not be easy to imitate in order to limit counterfeits by competitors. No physical or intangible properties should be easy to imitate. In addition, the resource should be highly valuable, which entails implementing strategies and formulations to make it more effective. And finally, a resource should be difficult to substitute; no close alternative to the resource should be available, making the company the only supplier and thus ahead of its competitors.

To answer the prompt, I suggest adding additional attributes to make a company’s resources more unique and give the company a competitive advantage. First, a company should invest heavily in perfecting its intangible resources. Intangible resources include reputation resources, human resources, and innovation rooted in practices and routines within a company. These types of resources are difficult to imitate competitors. The company should emphasize skills, good values, scientific expertise and interrelations with all its stakeholders, a technique that takes time to copy (Dess, 2021a). This will give the company a competitive advantage.

Finances are important resources in any company; proper financial resources management positively impacts a company’s success. This differs between companies, and a company may use it for sustainable competitive advantage, with the ability to balance between capital, profits and losses for the smooth running of the business and better financial decisions (Dess, 2021b).

To add on the attributes of a resource, a company should possess great organizational capabilities of its internal resources. This refers to the skills employed by an organization to convert inputs into outputs or combine tangible resources and intangible resources to obtain a final result. These include practices like the ability to deploy skilled and competent employees, quality customer service, innovativeness and excellent product development (Dess, 2021a). Companies often differ in organizational capabilities, so it is good to work on this aspect for uniqueness and sustainable competitive advantage.

Conclusion

To conclude, these are the possible additional attributes that a company’s resources should possess to help the company have a sustainable competitive advantage. The ability to organize resources to obtain a final resource is important and cannot be easily copied, considering that it is an internal resource.

References

Dess, G., Lee, S., Eisner, A., & McNamara, G. (2021a). Chapter 3 – Assessing the Internal Environment of the Firm. Strategic management: Text and cases (10^th Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Education.

Dess, G., Lee, S., Eisner, A., & McNamara, G. (2021b). Chapter 4 – Recognizing a Firm’s Intellectual Assets: Moving beyond a Firm’s Tangible Resources. Strategic management: Text and cases (10^th Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Education.

Miller, D. (2019). The resource-based view of the firm. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management.