Question

Why is it so hard to gain a competitive advantages? Why is it even harder to sustain a competitive advantage?

Answer 1

A competitive advantage becomes hard to gain as companies look not for the internal sources to improve, but also the external sources of information to improve that brings close analysis of the competencies owned by the rival firms. It becomes the part of the benchmarking strategic exercise that helps one company to become better on the basis of what the best other companies has done. It makes very difficult to attain the competitive advantage that is unrivaled in the market.
Once a competitive advantage is attained, then it becomes more difficult to maintain that competitive advantage as rival firms try to improve upon what is already available in the market via their R&D function. It makes the company having competitive advantage, to invest more in R&D work to be ahead of the competitors. In the information age, where the technology, capital and human resources are perfectly mobile, each firm has the opportunity to explore, develop its own innovation and get rewarded. As a result, sustained competitive advantage becomes very difficult.