REFRAMING THE CONCEPT OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: BETWEEN STABILITY AND ADAPTABILITY

The article offers a comprehensive and conceptually nuanced reframing of the category of competitive advantages within the specific context of an emergent economy characterized by institutional instability, rapid digitalization, market asymmetries, and structural transformation. Traditional resource-based perspectives and classical models are critically revisited and contrasted with a contemporary interpretation that emphasizes adaptability, innovation capacity, and the continuous co-creation of consumer-perceived value. The study underscores the paradigm shift in strategic thinking from static resource control toward dynamic capabilities, strategic flexibility, and the firm’s ability to sense, seize, and transform opportunities. Sustainable competitiveness, as the authors argue, now depends not only on possessing unique and valuable resources but also on the ability to reconfigure, renew, and realign them in accordance with shifting environmental conditions and stakeholder expectations. The authors differentiate between competitive advantages at the enterprise level and at the product level, analyzing their interactions with key success factors, resource potential, market position, and marketing strategies. A structural model is developed to illustrate the multi-level causal relationships within this framework. The article reveals that modern competitive advantages are derived from a complex and dynamic system of tangible and intangible elements, including organizational agility, digital proficiency, stakeholder trust, reputational capital, and involvement in value-creating ecosystems. These dimensions are increasingly critical in achieving sustainable performance and maintaining long-term strategic relevance. Furthermore, the study identifies technological, organizational, reputational, and marketing-related competitive dimensions and links them to enterprise effectiveness in volatile, uncertain, and complex environments. The proposed reframing provides a robust theoretical foundation and a diagnostic toolkit for competitive strategy development and execution, particularly valuable for firms operating in the unstable conditions of transformational economies like Ukraine.