Managerial conceptualisation of Competitive advantage

Abstract

This paper aimed to fill the gap in the managerial conception of competitive advantage by identifying and describing the specific sources that enable the firm to achieve higher economic value. These resources are rarely treated consciously in practice but more often subconsciously, intuitively, or just based on long-standing best practices. The article focused on structuring, classifying, and naming specific sources of competitive advantage and linking them to managerial frameworks, theories, and concepts from the field of strategic management that are categorised according to the same or similar behavioural characteristics. At the same time, the paper outlines the linkages between sources of competitive advantage, corporate strategy, value chain, and sustainability of competitive advantage. The research method of bibliometric analysis used revealed the interrelationships between the concept of "competitive advantage" and "key characterising keywords", and 9 clusters represented by the most frequent keywords were formed. By their descriptive sentence interpretation, the clusters were then classified under commonly known strategic frameworks and concepts, which differ from each other but represent well-known and understandable theories with clear generic characteristics, specific manifestations, and uniform and consistent characteristics. Within these, the authors then extract 135 prominent sources of competitive advantage where, by looking back at their roots and origins, managers can come to a clearer understanding of the theoretical area or framework that relates to their own achieved or potentially achievable competitive advantage. A deeper understanding of these strategic components enables managers to stimulate new ideas and innovations and significantly contribute to creating new and previously undiscovered competitive advantages.