Sustainable competitive advantage is the unique capabilities, attributes, or assets of a company that cannot be imitated by its competitors. Sustainable competitive advantage is a critical strategy-making consideration because it helps a company gain long-term competitive advantage in the market. The company having sustainable competitive advantage receives higher profit margin as compared to other firms. It helps the business stay ahead of their competitors, and maintain top position in their industry or market. Companies need sustainable competitive advantage as a critical strategy-making consideration in order to maintain long-term survival and growth in the market. Management needs to remember that having competitive advantage is not permanent or lasts long. When a company does have an advantage, other companies will follow and try to use this to create similarities to counteract the advantage. A company has a "sustainable competitive advantage" when its competitors are able to duplicate the benefits of a company's strategy. There are four standards to gain sustainable competitive advantage. They are, it must be valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable. What does this mean? The product or service must be of value to its users. The product or service is not easily obtained. It can not be easily copied or imitated by others. Users will not or are not able to substitute another service or product for the one that the company with the competitive advantage produces. Competitive advantage is earned when a company acquires attributes that allow it to perform at a higher level than its competitors. To achieve sustainable competitive advantage, a company must consider important developmental factors that include location, distribution, information systems, branding, unique services or goods, great customer service, or vendor relations (Boundless, 2016). A company's focus needs to be achieving sustainable competitive advantage to stay strong in their market, and stay ahead of their competitors. Sustainable competitive advantage is critical for all companies to succeed. A company needs to consistently strategize to stay ahead of their competitors, and create long term success.
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