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Achieving a sustainable service advantage.
The Journal of Business Strategy
|December 9, 1992
Summary
Managers often overlook service in strategy, viewing innovations as easily copied. However, a lasting service advantage requires a unique, inimitable capability gap that competitors cannot replicate.
Area of Science:
- Business Strategy
- Service Management
- Competitive Advantage
Background:
- Many managers underestimate the strategic role of superior service.
- Service innovations are frequently perceived as easily replicable by competitors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To challenge the narrow view that service plays a minor role in competitive strategy.
- To define the conditions under which a company can achieve a sustainable service advantage.
Main Methods:
- Conceptual analysis of service innovation and competitive strategy.
- Examination of the role of capability gaps in achieving market differentiation.
Main Results:
- The belief that service innovations are inherently copiable is a limited perspective.
- A lasting service advantage is contingent on developing unique capabilities that competitors cannot or will not imitate.
Conclusions:
- Companies must move beyond easily copied service features.
- Sustainable competitive advantage in service relies on building and leveraging inimitable organizational capabilities.
