Does Benchmarking Support Innovation that Leads to Competitive advantages? : Some observations in a study of manufacturing companies' use of best practices

• This paper describe a search for evidence that use of benchmarking is one driving factor supporting innovation and further if it is possible to see some relationship between the use of innovation as a practice and a created competitive advantage. The basis for the analysis is a dataset that was collected in beginning of 2001 through a survey (BPPS) among manufacturing sites with 10 and more employees in the region of Dalarna in Sweden. The Business Practices and Performance Model (BPPS) have been developed from a Practice Based View that is operationalized in a survey instrument. It has been used in three large scale empirical investigations in New Zealand during the 1990s and recently in five regions in Sweden. Traditionally a common view on strategy has been conceptualized as a situational choice of generic strategies (e.g. Porter) assuming a type of contingency based view of the firm. During the last decade and still dominating is the focus on core competencies or distinctive capabilities assuming a resource based view of the firm (RBV). But where do the capabilities come from? It is generally acknowledged in research that these often intangible or tacit capabilities are developed through experiential learning or learning by practicing. This is the basis of a “practice based view of the firm” (PBV), often assumed in quality theories and methodologies, as a variant or specification of RBV. It is in PBV assumed, based on research findings, that there are practices that, in combination and when effectively linked together, can be expected to consistently improve operational performance and thus provide firms who adopt them with an advantage over those that do not. Thus good business practices, and the learning and knowledge creation developed through using them, can be thought of as the base or foundation on which distinctive capabilities and hence competitive advantage is built.

Nyckelord

Resource based view

Best practice

Manufacturing

Benchmarking

Innovation

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