Column 3 · Resources and Capabilities · Era 3, Competitive Advantage (1980s)
Positional Advantage
Inputs: resources and assets · Landmark · Cluster II, Resources and Orientation
Description
Day and Wensley framed competitive advantage as a cycle in which sources of advantage (superior skills and resources) yield positional advantages (superior customer value or lower relative cost) that produce performance outcomes reinvested in the sources, and argued that assessment needs both competitor-centered and customer-focused measures.
Managerial Implications
Sustainable advantage links sources (skills and resources) to positions (lower cost or superior value) to outcomes (satisfaction, loyalty, share, profit). Assess advantage from both the customer's view and the competitor's view, because each sees different things. Managers should track all three links; a strong position with eroding sources, or strong sources without a visible customer benefit, both signal trouble ahead.