Strategy for Sustainable Competitive Advantage: Surviving Declining Demand and China?s Global Development

Due to the adverse outcomes of the recent global recession and the public deficit crisis in the USA and Europe, Western companies can expect flattening or declining sales in their domestic markets. They will also face growing competition as Chinese firms seek to block the activities of foreign companies in their domestic market and expand their own operations in overseas markets. Survival and growth for Western companies is unlikely to come from sustaining current business practices based upon utilization of conventional approaches to strategic management; success will depend on exploiting new knowledge to stay ahead of competition. This book examines the strategic issues associated with the entrepreneurial utilization of new knowledge to create innovative products and services, accompanied by the development of leading edge, highly productive internal organizational processes. Through the use of appropriate theories and illustrative case examples, the text is designed to assist managers in Western organizations and business school students understand how to counter the increasing threats that are posed by the globalization of companies from emerging countries such as the BRIC nations.

Ian Chaston is Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship and Director of the Management Centre at Plymouth Business School, Plymouth University, UK, and a Visiting Professor at Centrum Catolica Business School in Peru. Recent publications include Public Sector Management: Mission Impossible? (2011) and Entrepreneurship and Small Firms (2009).