Exploring management perceptions of competitive versus transient advantage

Abstract

Creating a Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA) is regarded as the central principle of strategy. Yet, scholarly and practical debates require the ability to pursue a SCA as an organisational purpose. With contemporary environmental pressures, it is uncertain whether organisations practically have the ability to succeed in creating and sustaining a Competitive Advantage (CA). On the contrary, the concept of transient advantage (TA) shows an increasing prevalence and synergy towards dynamic environments. Despite this, several organisations indicate the retention of CA as focus. This research confirms that many decision-makers fail to understand the concepts and their applicability in business. The authors of this study address the limited academic attention to the understanding, relevance and differentiation of competitive and TA at practical level. The findings of exploratory research with senior-level managers point to business executives misapprehending other terms for CA, one being TA. Transient advantage appears to be deemed more prevalent, due to contemporary environmental pressures as well as volatile regulatory requirements. The pursuance of sustainability appears problematic. The study contributes practically in that TA can be intentionally pursued through the business model flexibility to improve organisational performance.