Business network excellence for competitive advantage: Case of Korean firms

Abstract

Increasingly, Korean firms have received research attention for their competitive advantage in the global market. Some of them have demonstrated market leadership through business network excellence, i.e., outstanding performance outcomes in the extended value chain with OEM and its partners of SMEs in both supply and demand side in a global scale. The aim of this paper is to examine the emerging concept of business excellence from a value chain network perspective. This paper presents a business network excellence model that defines the nature of business excellence that promotes sustainable competitive advantage. This model presents critical dimensions of business network excellence in terms of: 1) governance; 2) network process details; 3) supportive infrastructure; 4) performance measures for sustainable competitive advantage. Illustrations of several Korean firms provide their noticeable business network excellence in the global market. Implications are discussed as well.