Viability advantage : Institutional Rooting of Competitive Advantage

Hypercompetitive VUCA environment drives short-term actions in firms’ quest for temporary competitive advantages. The Sustainability movement has become a welcome counterforce to VUCA initiatives forcing strategists to take social and ecological responsibility of the society in their strategic agenda while ensuring viability of their own organizations. The need for strategists is to balance competitive advantage issues with long-term viability issues. Using longitudinal data from many organizations, our study seeks to obtain an insight in the make-up of viability advantage which goes beyond sustained competitive advantage, both in durability and depth because of its institutional rooting. We also detail how public-private ecosystems can co-create robust springboards that facilitate breakthrough innovations, viable business models, and even new businesses facilitating viability even as they address sustainability challenges.