A Proposal Research Framework of Competitive Advantage for Vocational Colleges in Undeveloped Areas of China

Abstract

Competitive advantage is one of the most important and valuable advantage that ensure an organization to achieve success, and to keep a long-term prosperity. Competitive advantage plays a vital role for an organization within the market competition as it is resulting from an interaction of the crucial resources and dynamic capabilities. This paper aims to present a new perspective of researching competitive advantage via specific knowledge-based resources for vocational colleges in undeveloped areas of China. The new perspective research framework integrated three traditional theories in terms of knowledge-based view, Porters’ generic competitive advantage, and dynamic capability view, and qualitative findings of perceptions from 10 experts in vocational education or strategic management field. Eventually the paper reoriented the components of tangible and intangible resources, dynamic capabilities, also sheds light on how these independent variables effect on competitive advantage of vocational colleges in undeveloped areas of China. Accordingly, the results support a proposal empirical structured model of competitive advantage that would contribute for managers of vocational college or further empirical study.