Causal Ambiguity, Barriers to Imitation, and Sustainable Competitive Advantage
提出企业技能和资源中的隐性、复杂性和专有性会导致能力优势的因果模糊性，从而形成模仿壁垒，并强调持续投资于这些模糊能力对维持优势的必要性。
This article addresses the issues of competitive advantage and competitor imitation. It is argued that tacitness, complexity, and specificity in a firm's skills and resources can generate causal ambiguity in competency-based advantage, and thus raise barriers to imitation. Reinvestment in causally ambiguous competencies is necessary to protect the advantage. Without reinvestment, attritional effects of continued competitive action will cause decay in the barriers to imitation. From this theorizing, research propositions are suggested, which, ultimately, will lead to an improved understanding of competitive advantage sustainability.