A new model for achieving sustainable competitive advantage through operations strategies in manufacturing companies

Theorists and practitioners alike emphasise the importance of competitive advantage in garnering maximum profit and performance. Still, there is a presence of continuous confusion among managers in measuring a company's competitive advantage with regards to its temporality and sustainability. In order to look into this issue, the authors introduced product lifecycle as a time‐dimension measure and analysed its effects on optimum financial performance. In addition, this research study attempted to identify the appropriate operations strategies that could bring about sustainable competitive advantage. Operations strategies can be divided into four subcategories: low‐cost leadership, quality differentiation, service differentiation and innovation differentiation. The primary data collected via questionnaires for this study came from the chief executive officers and chief operating officers of Malaysian manufacturing companies. Results were tabulated through the application of a multiple regression analysis. The study also proved that some of the operations strategies could ensure that these select manufacturing companies would obtain sustainable competitive advantage. However, it is important to note that the service differentiation strategy was limited in its contribution to temporary competitive advantage.