Strategic Resources and Sustainable Competitive Advantage for Cellular Mobile Operators

Intense competition in Indian telecommunication industry has compelled cellular mobile operators (CMOs) to stay ahead of their competitors to continue in business. A CMO, to stay ahead of its competitors for a prolonged period, has to gain sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). Resource based view (RBV) explains that an organization, which possesses strategic resources and exploits them can attain SCA and deliver better value to their customers leading to above average performance. Based on literature review of RBV and SCA, this paper presents a conceptual framework for CMO, in which it identifies intangible resources which are strategic in nature and thereby contribute significantly to create customer value and superior performance. It helps cellular service providers to understand the strategic resources, the attributes of services, and the customer value dimensions to achieve superior strategic, operational and financial performance.