The determinants of competitive advantage: a critical appraisal

Competition;

Allan, Andrew C.

University:University of St Andrews

Department:Economics & Finance (School of)

关键词: Competition;   

Others  :  https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/2887/AndrewCAllanPhDThesis.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y

来源: DR-NTU

【 摘 要 】

The thesis deals with the means whereby a firm can gaina competitive advantage over its rivals. After consideringhow this issue is dealt with in the management literature,the thesis focuses on two possible routes to competitiveadvantage. The first is largely internal to the firm, andconcerns the design of managerial contracts to providemanagers with the incentives to act in the best interests ofshareholders. The second route is external, involvingstrategic market moves in relation to rival firms. These twopossible routes to competitive advantage are appraised inlight of recent theoretical developments in 1principal-agentanalysis the internal route, and the new industrialeconomics the external route. The final section of thethesis is empirical and deals with the share priceexperience of the top 100 U. K. companies since 1970. Theeconometric notion of cointegration is employed to test forthe existence of sustained competitive advantage. Thetentative conclusion reached is that while companies may beable to achieve a sustained competitive advantage, thecompensation contracts employed have not been a successfulmeans of obtaining such advantage. The suggestion is thatexternal routes to competitive advantage might be moreeffective.