The growing importance of changing nature of competition

Abstract

In this paper, an in depth theoretical overview on the central question in business strategy is provided: Why some firms outperform others? The latest approaches to the concept of competitive advantage were examined. Recent researches show that sustainable competitive advantage is becoming rarer, and that the duration of competitive advantage decreases (Wiggins and Ruefli, 2002). Sirmon, et. al. (2010) point out that competitive advantage is de facto unsustainable and that each advantage of the firm is reduced, as a result of dynamic interactions with competitors. Thus, the paper gives detailed explanation of how and why new perspectives work to unlock the potential for competitiveness. In other words, the purpose of this paper is to examine the theoretical background and insights of behaviour of the firms and the ways of sustaining competitive advantage in the context of hypercompetition, by examining the modes in which firms successfully compete, evolve and survive in times when specific advantages are not sustainable, but of more temporary nature. This extant literature review shows that still and all we face a knowledge gap in realizing the big picture of competitive advantage.