New frontiers of competitive advantage

Superior access to and clever strategies to configure traditional tangible factors of production – land, raw materials, labour and capital – have been key to competitive advantage. Hitherto, that is. For firms seeking to grow and thrive in a modern economy significantly characterised by digitisation, innovation and disruptive technologies, the name of the strategy game is intangibility.

Although tangible factors are still necessary and remain an integral part of production, they must be augmented by fluid and constantly evolving intangible sources of value creation and competitive advantage. The intangibles are in effect the dynamic ‘factors’ of our time, and are important for both manufacturing and services firms in terms of sustainable performance, market share, brand equity and technological advantage.

Our research seeks to understand how the sources of competitive advantage have changed, where the new competitive frontiers are, and the strategic imperatives for firms in the light of these developments.

Research focus

• What are the new sources of competitive advantage and value creation in the digital economy?
• Why must organisations adopt a new framework for strategic planning based on an ecosystem paradigm of intangible sources of competitive advantage?
• What do these intangibles imply strategically for firms and their business models?
• What are some of the key trends in advanced analytics where data is harnessed to spawn innovation and boost competitive advantage?