Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
competitors. Peteraf and Barney (2003) suggested
that economic value is generated from using either
one or both of these advantages. Furthermore,
competitiveness is sometimes referred to as
whether or not a firm can competently manipu-
late their asset and skills to make a higher profit
at the same cost, or make a higher profit at a
lower cost compared to competitors (Chadwick
and Dadu, 2009). Table 7 summarises these and
further definitions of competitive advantage. In
addition, if organisations want to have unique
or individual competitive advantage in an ever
changing market, they have to acquire a higher
market share and profit margin through continu-
ous innovation, improvement and product and/or
service differentiation from competitors.
Fleisher and Bensoussan (2003) state that: “the
source of competitive advantage within a firm is
often multifactorial in that it usually can not be
attributed to only one type of resource”. They
advocate that a company's competitive advantage
usually interacts with different types of resource.
In general, the competitive advantage of a firm
can be measured by factors such as customer
satisfaction, employee empowerment, quality cost
system, lean manufacturing, continuous improve-
ment and productivity enhancement (Gevirtz
1994). More examples of competitive advantage
factors are given in Table 8.
THE PROPOSED MODEL AND
FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
From previous research, it can be concluded
that GSCM activities can help organisations to
improve environmental performance and then
enhance competitive advantage. In addition,
GSCM helps organisations to reduce their nega-
tive impact on the environment, and it also helps
them to improve environmental performance by
implementing external and internal environmen-
tal management practices and systems. In terms
of external environmental management, it can
Table 7. Definition of competitive advantage
Author
Years
Definition of Competitive Advantage
The competitive advantage of a firm is that the company's product has better quality and service than
their competitors in the market.
Ansoff
1965
Hatten et al.
1978
The competitive advantage is entering a better market than competitors
The companies have unique and competitive position in the market for long-term period. It always has
a higher market share and profit margin than competitors.
Porter
1980
The competitive advantage is that companies have specific skills or technologies, and higher profit as-
sets than their competitors.
Aaker
1984
Porter
1985
Long-term competitive advantage is that companies are using strategic planning.
Murdick et al.
1990
The companies who own competitive advantage have better corporate strategy than competitors.
Ansoff & Mc-
Donnel
The competitive advantage is defined as enterprises that have better product and service quality than
competitors.
1990
The competitive advantage often comes from providing their customers with better value and service
than competitors.
Porter
1991
A firm has competitive advantage if implementing a strategy currently when other companies are not
entering the same market.
Barney
1991
Competitive advantage of a firm is that the company produces their product with the cost under aver-
age production cost of the industry or they earn higher profit than other competitors under the same
production cost
Hill & Jones
2001
The company can create more economic value (lower opportunity cost) than their competitors, and then
the company has competitive advantage in the market.
Peteraf & Barney
2003
