Now beyond its eleventh printing and translated into twelve languages, Michael Porter’s The Competitive Advantage of Nations has changed completely our conception of how prosperity is created and sustained in the modern global economy. Porter’s groundbreaking study of international competitiveness has shaped national policy in countries around the world. It has also transformed thinking and action in states, cities, companies, and even entire regions such as Central America. Based on research in ten leading trading nations, The Competitive Advantage of Nations offers the first theory of competitiveness based on the causes of the productivity with which companies compete. Porter shows how traditional comparative advantages such as natural resources and pools of labor have been superseded as sources of prosperity, and how broad macroeconomic accounts of competitiveness are insufficient. The book introduces Porter’s “diamond,” a whole new way to understand the competitive position of a nation (or other locations) in global competition that is now an integral part of international business thinking. Porter's concept of “clusters,” or groups of interconnected firms, suppliers, related industries, and institutions that arise in particular locations, has become a new way for companies and governments to think about economies, assess the competitive advantage of locations, and set public policy. Even before publication of the book, Porter’s theory had guided national reassessments in New Zealand and elsewhere. His ideas and personal involvement have shaped strategy in countries as diverse as the Netherlands, Portugal, Taiwan, Costa Rica, and India, and regions such as Massachusetts, California, and the Basque country. Hundreds of cluster initiatives have flourished throughout the world. In an era of intensifying global competition, this pathbreaking book on the new wealth of nations has become the standard by which all future work must be measured.

The trends of the globalization of supplies, products, and service markets, the importance of competing by the time to market and the growing uncertainty of the environment are all factors that contributed to highlight the need for companies to improve the functioning of their supply chains.Indeed, unpredictable dynamics of a SC can arise from a variety of internal and external sources, including suppliers/partners, customers and competitors (Trkman et al. 2015). Thus, to reach competitive advantage, the challenges for today's companies are shifting from internal efficiency to supply chain efficiency (Barroso et al. 2015). Furthermore, supply chains today being complex and global, global markets and operations must normally prompt companies to revisit their corporate, business and functional strategies in addition to focusing on outsourcing, virtual enterprise and supply chain management (Ageron et al. 2011). However, recent studies (McKinsey 2011) note that many global supply chains are not equipped to cope with the world we are entering. Therefore, every company in a SC has to continually change its business model as a response to very changing macro and micro environments issues (Trkman et al. 2015). In that sense, a sum of revolutionary supply chain strategies may be proposed to guide supply chain managers to maintain durably the competitive advantage of their companies and to improve constantly the level of the corporate performance. This paper examines the role of popular supply chain management strategies in creating and maintaining competitive advantages in the current turbulent environment.

"Companies of all sizes are seeking to transform their procurement and supplier relationship management processes: activities that have a tremendous upside potential for improved supply chain effectiveness and efficiency. Now, two leading consultants and researchers offer a comprehensive approach to creating customer value through strategic sourcing and procurement. Unlike texts focused primarily on day-to-day operations and tactics, Delivering Customer Value through Procurement and Strategic Sourcing focuses on helping senior executives and managers gain sustainable competitive advantage from their supply chains."--Publisher's website.

Competitive Advantage introduces a tool that may be used to diagnose and enhance competitive advantage: the value chain. Value-chain analysis allows the manager to separate the underlying activities a firm performs in designing, producing, marketing, and distributing its product or service. It is these activities from which competitive advantage ultimately stems. By showing how all the firm's activities can be examined in this integrated way, Porter provides a practical perspective on competitive strategy.

Dr. Trent presents a framework for achieving sustainable competitive advantages in price and cost, quality, cycle time, technology, flexibility, and customer responsiveness through progressive strategy supply management leadership.

It is increasingly clear that traditional supply chains which focus on sourcing products from the lowest possible cost suppliers are failing to exploit their full potential. Supply Chain Ethics, through case studies, surveys and unique research, identifies and outlines best practice employed by global manufacturers, retailers and logistics companies. It examines the so-called 'triple advantage' that accrues to businesses when strategies that combine bottom line profits, sustainable environmental practices and positive societal impact are employed. Narrow supply chain strategies which focus on only one of these three factors will inevitably fail. Supply Chain Ethics covers the following issues which affect senior supply chain, operations and manufacturing managers: 'triple advantage' best practice and how it can create value for global businesses; product design; sourcing and warehousing; transportation and recycling; environmental practices of logistics companies and suppliers; supply chain technologies. There is also an invaluable Ethical Supply Chains survey of top global companies.