Question

1) Define competitive advantage (CA).  

2) Distinguish CA carefully from sustainable CA (SCA).  

3) How much more common is CA than SCA and why?  

4) Return to Ghemawat’s reading in module 1: put my last question into an empirical context – how sustainable is CA generally?  

5) What implications does all this have for executive strategy?

Answer 1

Ans 1). Competitive advantage (CA)is the favorable position an organization seeks in order to be more profitable than its rivals. To gain and maintain a competitive advantage, an organization must be able to demonstrate a greater comparative or differential value than its competitors and convey that information to its desired target market.

Ans 2).Competitive advantage(CA) is something you do better than any of your competitors.
It's the boxer who is unbeatable. It's the company that releases an innovative, industry changing product.
Competitive advantage is illusive. It's difficult to establish. When you do establish a competitive advantage — it's often fleeting.

While

Sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) is another strategy. It's an advantage that keeps going for many years or decades. Ideally, forever.

Ans 3). Sustainable competitive advantages(SCA) are company assets, attributes, or abilities that are difficult to duplicate or exceed; and provide a superior or favorable long term position over competitors.

And

A condition or circumstance that puts a company in a favourable or superior business position is Competitive advantage (CA).

It is common because a long term Competitive advantage(CA) and Sunstainble competitive dvantage(SCA) that is not easily duplicable or surpassable by the competitors.