Exploring the strategic priorities and their relationship with resource based competitive advantages (Case Study: Firms in Rasht industrial complex)

Abstract

With the rapid changes in international environments, it's very hard to sustain the corporate competitive advantage. Knowing the competitive priorities leads the managers to a better understanding of corporate strategies in the future. The globalization pressure and the rapid changes in local markets have affected the firms' competitive advantages. Having a clear understanding of competitive priorities can help manufacturing firms sustain their competitive advantage. Basing the Resource Based View (RBV), as the foundations of competitive advantages, this paper collects data through questionnaire filled in by 142 managers of manufacturing firms in Rasht industrial complex. Applying EFA and CFA, 8 factors are distinguished as the strategic priorities which effect competitive advantages of these firms including quality, cost, delivery, flexibility, environmental preservation, innovation, technical knowledge and customer focus. Customer centricity had the highest and cost had the lowest effect on achieving competitive advantage among them.

Keywords

• Competitive Advantage
• resource based view
• strategic priorities