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Big data analytics (BDA) is one of the main pillars of Industry 4.0. It has become a promising tool for supporting the competitive advantages of firms by enhancing data-driven performance. Meanwhile, the scarcity of resources on a worldwide level has forced firms to consider sustainable-based performance as a critical issue. Additionally, the literature confirms that BDA and innovation can enhance firms’ performance, leading to competitive advantage. However, there is a lack of studies that examine whether or not BDA and innovation alone can sustain a firm’s competitive advantage. Drawing on previous studies and dynamic capability theory, this study proposes that big data analytics capabilities (BDAC), supported by a high level of data availability (DA), can improve innovation capabilities (IC) and, hence, lead to the development of a sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). This study examines the proposed hypotheses by surveying 117 manufacturing firms and analyzing responses via partial least squares–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) statistical software. Findings reveal that BDAC relies significantly on the degree of DA and has a significant role in increasing IC. Furthermore, the analysis confirms that IC has a significant and direct effect on a firm’s SCA, while BDAC has no direct effect on SCA. This study provides valuable insights for manufacturing firms to improve their sustainable business performance and theoretical and practical insights into BDA implementation issues in attaining sustainability in processes.

Amidst rapid technological progress and increasing regulatory demands, the Chinese video game industry has undergone rapid changes that have provided a fruitful context for examining corporate competencies. Drawing on the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Dynamic Capability View (DCV) theories, this study investigates how firm capabilities (FC) and firm resources (FR) contribute to value creation (VC), which subsequently influences firm performance (FP) and sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). A quantitative research approach was employed, utilizing the data collected from a questionnaire survey of 241 video game firms. The data analysis was conducted using SmartPLS4 software, revealing that FC/FR has a significant effect on VC, which, in turn, mediates the relationship between FC/FR and FP. This study identifies three dimensions of VC—customer value (CV), employee value (EV), and shareholder value (SV)—with EV showing stronger mediating effects than CV and SV. It then uses the BSC framework to assess FP’s intermediary role in bridging VC with SCA through the integration of both financial and non-financial performance indicators relevant to the dynamic video game industry. These results have strong theoretical and practical implications, offering valuable guidance for fostering sustainable development. Specifically, they provide actionable insights for managers to enhance value creation and firm performance while also offering policy recommendations to support regulatory compliance and promote sustainable practices in China’s dynamic video game industry.

To cope, preserve market position, and achieve sustainable competitive advantage (SCA), companies should put operations strategy into action systematically and coherently. In this vein, the purpose of this study is to evaluate small and medium-sized (SME) pharmaceutical firms in southern Vietnam considering their current strategic orientation, development path, and sustanability of competitive advantage. The method used in this research is Sense and Respond (S&R), supported with combination of different tools. The data has been gathered from six companies utilizing two questionnaires: “Manufacturing strategy index (MSI)” and “S&R”. The results show that, all case companies act as Analyzer both in the past and in the future when employing operations strategy. In all case companies, quality found to be the most important competitive priority in the past and future, and the main source of competitive advantage. Furthermore, spearhead technology and knowledge (T&K) found to be the main source of risk in operations strategy and SCA. The Weak Market Test demonstrates that the research results are consistent with the actual situations of the case companies. The research concludes that S&R method works well in evaluating the operative SCA of pharmaceutical SMEs.

The main purpose of this research work is to assist the decision-making process which is related to technology and knowledge factor within an organization. The data has been gathered and analysed from a particular multinational company that operates in the ceramic manufacturing industry within Malaysia. Four respondents were sought to answer the sense-and-respond questionnaire, including the part on technology sharing. The priority among technology types, including basic, core, and spearhead was decided by the maximum coefficient of the variance. The work has two main contributions: 1. It proposes and validates a tool for decisions and strategies related to technology focus in firms, and 2. expands the notion of technology types from focusing only on product development to one that focuses on both product and process development. The results of the study show that the proposed model which was previously applied in high tech start-ups and local medium-size enterprises is applicable in large industries involved in mass production.

The main focus of this paper is to propose a method for prioritizing knowledge and technology factor of firms towards sustainable competitive advantage. The data has been gathered and analyzed from two high tech start-ups in which technology and knowledge play major role in company’s success. The analytical hierarchy model (AHP) is used to determine competitive priorities of the firms. Then knowledge and technology part of sense and respond questionnaire is used to calculate the variability coefficient i.e. the uncertainty caused by technology and knowledge factor. The proposed model is tested in terms of two start-ups. Based on the initial calculation of uncertainties, some improvement plan is proposed and the method is applied again to see if the uncertainty of knowledge and technology decreases. In both cases, the proposed model helped to have a clear and precise improvement plan and led in reduction of uncertainty.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Malaysian furniture industry via Sustainable competitive advantages (SCA) approach. In this case study, sense and respond method and Normalized Scaled Critical Factor Index (NSCFI) are used to specify the distribution of companies’ resources for different criteria and detect the attributes which are critical based on expectation and experience of companies’ employs. Moreover, this study evaluates Malaysian furniture business strategy according to manufacturing strategy in terms of analyzer, prospector and defender. Finally, SCA risk levels are presented to show how much company’s resource allocations support their business strategy. This case study involved four furniture manufacturing companies, in the southern part of Peninsular Malaysia to provide the overall view of their strategies in the perspective of knowledge & technology management, processes & work flows, organizational, and information systems. Hence, the findings of this study presented the preliminary results from these furniture companies in Malaysia, which are involved in sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) studies in terms of expectation and experience, NSCFI, operational strategy triangle of prospector (P), defender (D), and analyzer (A). The result shows that almost all furniture companies are categorized into the Analyzer type strategy and planning to remain being Analyzer in future to come.

Purpose: This paper aims to present a fresh idea on how to model and examine the level of sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) with and without knowledge and /technology (K/T) effects in a case company’s operation by taking the manufacturing strategy’s development directions and the efficiency of resource allocation among its attributes into consideration. Design/Methodology/approach: In this paper, questionnaires are filled by two different managerial groups, company’s management team (G1) and company’s global directors (G2). The analyses based on G1, G2 and G1-G2 (mixed results) are performed and examined as well as the effect of knowledge and /technology rankings to observe the differences on how they effect on company’s operations strategy and what kind of strategy type that decision makers might follow. Besides, the effects of knowledge/technology rankings on SCA risk levels are examined on different case companies to perceive the similarities and differences with our case company. In this case study, the objectives are achieved based on several methodologies: manufacturing strategy index (MSI) [1] and sense and respond (S&R) methodology [2]. Findings: The achieved results through the model are found to be promising corresponding to the feedback from the respondents. Research limitations/implications: The model is applied only in a big sized B2B global company that produces power electronics products. Therefore, further tests need to be applied to the model in case of multiple companies from different sizes and areas to figure out the best formula in case of validation of strategic direction (MAPE, RSME or MAD). Practical implications: As a result of its wide applicability and its ease in arrangement the model has an enormous potential for strategic decision-making process and strategic analysis. Originality/Value:The model can provide a more dependable possibility of sustainable improvement to the corporate operational excellence and strategy

The goal of this paper is to help small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) to find operative competitive advantage. This paper introduces a new method which applies critical factor analysis, risk and opportunities analysis to measure and propose resource allocation for companies in couple of next years. this research shows Knowledge/Technology (K/T) Calculation effect on (Balanced) Critical Factor Index (CFIs) depending on the proportions allocated among the different technological levels (Basic, Core or Spearhead) for each attribute separately. Moreover it helps firms to take balance in resource allocation for each attribute in changing environments on the basis of different level of technology. This paper presents the ’first in the world’ case study on operative sustainable competitive advantage and corresponding risk levels by taking into account technology and knowledge effects for 7 SME companies