The Importance of Innovation and Adaptation for Competitive Advantage

This essay critically evaluates the significance of innovation and the adaptation of new technologies in establishing a sustainable competitive advantage for companies. The introduction highlights the increasing role of technology in a competitive landscape, emphasizing the importance of sustainable competitive advantage as a driver of business value. The essay then explores the necessity of understanding market segments, customer needs, and value propositions to achieve a competitive edge. It discusses the three types of sustainable competitive advantage: cost, value, and focus. The critical evaluation delves into the importance of innovation as a strategic tool, encompassing product, marketing, procedural, and organizational innovations. The essay further examines the role of IT infrastructure and the maintenance of private security in achieving competitive advantage, using examples like Google and Aldi. The essay explores how companies can foster innovation through training and development, and emphasizes the role of innovation in addressing sustainability challenges. It suggests that companies should undertake investments in staff, training, and board members to create new business models. Finally, the essay offers recommendations based on techniques to attain competitive advantage, such as creating creative designs and adopting a user-centered approach. The conclusion reiterates the aim of innovation strategy to integrate human capital, innovation, and informational society, highlighting the role of IT services and infrastructure in creating a favorable innovation business environment.

DEBATES IN STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT

Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Critical evaluation.................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................6
References.............................................................................................................................................8

Introduction
The essay brings out a discussion on creation of sustainable competitive advantage. With the
increasing competition, organisations have often started employing adaption and innovative
technology to create competitive advantage. Technology has enabled organisation to conduct
online and international to acquire customers in foreign market. Online retailing has made the
competition at complex level where online presence cannot make stand out from crowd.
Sustainable competitive edge is key to organisational success because it is the major driver of
sustainable business value. Without sustainable competitive advantage, one risks another
business by enabling the business to have more sales, better profit margins, greater focus, and
higher customer with staff retention. Therefore, smaller business can develop sustainable
competitive advantage, which is based on superior value to specific niche market (Jones,
Harrison, and Felps, 2018). The essay brings out a discussion on importance of maintaining
sustainability with appropriate examining issues in strategic management. With the analysis
of competitive strategies, companies often use porter`s fiver forces model to study several
aspects of strategy made with examples of industry and changed it as per the dynamic
changes in the environment.
Critical evaluation
Critically evaluate the importance of innovation and adaptation of new technologies to
create sustainable competitive advantage for companies
While understanding and developing sustainable competitive advantage, it is important to
understand market segments. Looking at niche, which are not well served by the competitors
as it can be profitable and sold to. Developing the understanding of customers, which really
want and then establish value proposition, which grab attention. Three types of sustainable
competitive advantage covers cost advantage, value advantage, and focus advantage. At cost

advantage, the organisation can compete at price level. The organisation avail differentiated
offering, which are perceived at superior value. The organisation rely on specific market
niche with making and offering as designed for segment of market (Bashir, and Verma,
2017). Furthermore, it is profitable if it designs business model to deliver value proposition
by understanding strengths, competencies and use innovative methods to add value to
selected market. Key things which is needed to accomplish to support and then deliver value
proposition. For instance- level of services, branding, pricing, and quality. Main five steps
used to develop sustainable competitive advantage reflects that first mover advantage is the
first entrant in new market to obtain advantage over the other competitors. First mover
advantage is not sustainable (Amiri, Shirkavand, and Rezaeei, 2017). Best example for
sustainable competitive advantage includes Facebook and Google but not they dominate the
market. IT infrastructure plays an important role in accomplishing competitive advantage for
the organisation but at the same time, one has to maintain cloud computing and managing
private security issues because lack of security often lead to lack of sustainable competitive
advantage. It needs high level of trained staff who maintains the private security and cloud
computing (Ogunkoya, 2018). For example- Google maintains its customers and users
account by protecting their personal data, which shows first mover advantage, is far more
from maintaining sustainable system, which can last long in maintaining competitive
advantage. Encryption brings high level of security to its services because created data move
between devices, Google services, and data centres as it is protected by secure technology
like Transport layer security and HTTPs (Ogunkoya, 2018).
Google has remained an extremely invasion of privacy as Google uses potential technique
well known as fingerprint to find the particular device well known as Google Analytics
(Amiri, Shirkavand, and Rezaeei, 2017). This is a competitive advantage, as Google can trust
by keeping chrome secure, and maintained. On the other hand, many companies are not able

to maintain their private security such as Aldi suffering from threat of cyber-attacks.
Quantitative analysis of risks reflects likelihood as low, which possess high risks affecting
financial performance of organisation that face issue while generating high level of revenues
(Ramraika, and Trivedi, 2016). More than 1000 shopping retail stores in several areas reports
fraudulent activities and other privacy data breaches. This lead to show negative news for
media and organisational risks affecting the reputation of company (Larbi, 2019).
Innovation is a strategy, which is used to exploit new ideas in creating new product, service,
and processes. It does not only include introduction to new products and then bringing it to
the market. It is vast and multidisciplinary issue, which address areas that includes marketing,
quality, technological management, organisational behaviour, strategic management, and
product development (Castro, and Giraldi, 2018). In this process, innovation will define as
exploit new ideas, which will lead to create new items but it is not limited here. Engrossing
technological transformation, think out of the box, making significant changes and adding
new value to bring significant changes in society (Rajkumar, and Abraham, 2018).
Innovation can be successful when it adopts the pace of changing customer demands, which
would decide in creating needs in types such as innovation in products, innovation in
marketing, innovation in procedures, and innovation in organisation (Castro, and Giraldi,
2018). A critical element to stay competitive is innovation. Further, to stay competitive,
innovation see things from different angles, considering broad perspective, considering risks,
becoming flexible and promoting innovation at workplace can encourage employee to bring
ideal champions. Innovation is a process of strategic management as identified as the source
of competitive advantage for companies as social systems (Larbi, 2019). It is well known to
manage strategic procedures, which will transform the idea, new business models, and
changing needs of markets and society (Shah, and Khan, 2019). Organisation can gain
competitive edge launching innovative products, which will transfigured the conducting

business traditionally. Critical way to lead towards highest competitive advantage, it has to
uncover training sessions and development programs. MNCs often foresee training and
development as important strategy for human resource management as this can stimulate
innovation amongst employees (Rajkumar, and Abraham, 2018).
Main drivers of sustainability can promote competitiveness with the help of building
capacity, regulation, transparency, integration, and collaboration. New thought process of
companies can deliver core business level strategies to manufacture products as per social,
environment, and economic benefits (Quaye, and Mensah, 2019). Innovation has become
critical to new world of sustainability that assist to differentiate between leaders and
followers. The business earlier focuses on sustainability by the usual factors such as
reputation, hiring the best people, risks management, resource efficiency, and cost saving
(Quaye, and Mensah, 2019). Therefore, it is quite clear with the dynamic changes in the
business environment, it can realise that these sustainability threats, which the world faces.
Leading organisation have realised sustainability threats that offer and re-invent services to
enhance market advantages (Pratono, Yudiarso, and Jeong, 2019). For example- Nike is
willing to engage in wide variety of stakeholders on the part of sustainability as product
development. Nike has then realised it has improve supply chain, resource use, end life cycle
and energy impact. Innovation can lead to generate new ideas to combat sustainability
challenges. Evaluating and commercialising ideas are needed to weight environmental and
social effect considering profit potential (Salguero, Gámez and Palomo, 2019). To maintain
competitiveness and sustainability in the organisations, it has to undertake investments in
recruiting and incentivising staff, training, and CEO board to prepare and empower staff in
bringing new items and services by creating new business model (Bashir, and Verma, 2017).
Large organisation often acquire and merge with small companies for innovation. Clean tech
start-ups have been proliferating and their extent to large organisations, which invests and

nurtures innovation by applying testing strategies. It can invest in sustainability innovation
(Kuncoro, and Suriani 2018). For example- Chevron energy solution avails stronger
sustainability with the help of its subsidiary, which was formed as “Chevron Energy
solutions” as (CES) automobile industry. Chevron has made investments in renewable where
CES can built around business model of the service delivery and alternative energy
developments (Torres, and Santos-Rodrigues, 2018). To concentrate on these actions, the
company use several strategies except cost leadership and differentiated products, the
organisational identify CSR model to know the impact of their operations on social and
environmental factor. Profitable approach to renewable energy provisions with consultation
of energy efficient. This has raised another concept of Tomorrow value rating, which will
exactly show how, companies, can be likely to attempt long term goals and investment value
by thanking sustainable practise in which innovation has started playing important role
(Wong, Soh, and Le Chong, 2016). TVR has resulted to highlight that several organisations
are not familiar with public disclosures but at last its innovation processes will fear
competitive disadvantage. These disclosures avail them opportunity to embed innovation
procedure to enable process better and then demonstrate to create sustainable future (Mahdi,
Nassar, and Almsafir, 2019).
At last, here are some recommendations based on technique to attain competitive advantage
other competitors For example- creating creative designs that encompasses actions in
changing existing situation as market is dominated by user centred paradigm where
organisations can start new project by analysing the needs of the market and observe users
(Della Corte, and Aria, 2016). It is an approach for subject as much as appreciated by
managers, which includes cultural background, attracted methodologies, and code tools.
Clients request meaning of radical innovation, which has been cleared by changing the
meaning while innovating a place of coffee to an extremely pleasant spending time such as

Starbucks, McDonald’s, Apple, and Nokia. The cafeteria has been designed to change the
pattern of spending time to have management (Hatten, 2018).
Conclusion
The innovation strategy can aim to assure economic development as intelligent, favourable,
and durable to inclusion procedure by insisting the creation of workplace. The main aim of
strategy is to integrate human capital, innovation, and informational society. The innovative
system is related to knowledge of technologies of investment decision as the engine of
economic development. Quality of business environment is strongly related to tendencies for
organisations to identify number of factors, which lead to create favourable innovation
business environment by employing IT services and infrastructure, which includes educated
workforce, capital, purchase capacity, human development, and inclination towards huge
investment, electric commerce, and innovation management to understand the role of highly
trained employees. The essay concludes on this note that maintaining high profits is not only
reasons of achieving maximised customer satisfaction and compliance of government
policies. With the changes in the conducting business, the company wants to adopt
innovation strategy to comply with sustainability to attain maximum competitive advantage.

References
Bashir, M. and Verma, R., 2017. Why business model innovation is the new competitive
advantage. IUP Journal of Business Strategy, 14(1), p.7.
Castro, V.A. and Giraldi, J.D.M.E., 2018. Shared brands and sustainable competitive
advantage in the Brazilian wine sector. International Journal of Wine Business Research
Della Corte, V. and Aria, M., 2016. Coopetition and sustainable competitive advantage. The
case of tourist destinations. Tourism Management, 54, pp.524-540
Hatten, T.S., 2018. Small Business Management: Creating a Sustainable Competitive
Advantage. SAGE Publications
Jones, T.M., Harrison, J.S. and Felps, W., 2018. How applying instrumental stakeholder
theory can provide sustainable competitive advantage. Academy of Management
Review, 43(3), pp.371-391.
Kuncoro, W. and Suriani, W.O., 2018. Achieving sustainable competitive advantage through
product innovation and market driving. Asia Pacific Management Review, 23(3), pp.186-192
Larbi, G.M., 2019. A Try to combine more than approaches and competitive strategies to
achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. journal of Economics And Administrative
Sciences, 25(116), pp.147-163
Mahdi, O.R., Nassar, I.A. and Almsafir, M.K., 2019. Knowledge management processes and
sustainable competitive advantage: An empirical examination in private universities. Journal
of Business Research, 94, pp.320-334
Ogunkoya, O.A., 2018. Adaptive Capabilities as Predictors of Sustainable Competitive
Advantage among Selected Banks in Nigeria. Operational Research, 4(1)

Pratono, A.H., Darmasetiawan, N.K., Yudiarso, A. and Jeong, B.G., 2019. Achieving
sustainable competitive advantage through green entrepreneurial orientation and market
orientation. The Bottom Line
Quaye, D. and Mensah, I., 2019. Marketing innovation and sustainable competitive
advantage of manufacturing SMEs in Ghana. Management Decision
Rajkumar, K.P. and Abraham, M., 2018. STRATEGIC POSITIONING AND
SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE FOR GROWTH OF
INDUSTRY. Organized by, p.160
Ramraika, C.F.A. and Trivedi, P., 2016. Sources of Sustainable Competitive
Advantage. Prashant, Sources of Sustainable Competitive Advantage (January 5, 2016)
Salguero, G.C., Gámez, M.Á.F., Fernández, I.A. and Palomo, D.R., 2019. Competitive
Intelligence and Sustainable Competitive Advantage in the Hotel
Industry. Sustainability, 11(6), pp.1-12
SEYYED-AMIRI, N.A.D.E.R., Shirkavand, S., Chalak, M. and Rezaeei, N., 2017.
Competitive intelligence and developing sustainable competitive advantage. AD-minister,
(30), pp.173-194
Shah, S.S.A. and Khan, Z., 2019. Corporate social responsibility: a pathway to sustainable
competitive advantage?. International Journal of Bank Marketing
Torres, A.I., Ferraz, S.S. and Santos-Rodrigues, H., 2018. The impact of knowledge
management factors in organizational sustainable competitive advantage. Journal of
Intellectual Capita

Wong, W.P., Soh, K.L. and Le Chong, C., 2016. Differentiated service consumption and low
cost production: Striking a balance for a sustainable competitive advantage in
Malaysia. International Journal of Production Economics, 181, pp.450-459