Enterprise cultural heritage: The source for sustainable competitive advantage and survival for food sector SMEs

Remaining in business and growing is a challenge for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the food sector. The focus of this paper is the internal innovation avenue for SMEs that have been trading for decades and have developed the asset of enterprise cultural heritage (ECH). The authors examine ECH as a source of sustainable competitive advantage, using the value, rarity, imitability and organization (VRIO) framework and evaluating the practical potential of ECH to create sustainable competitive advantage through case studies of two international companies. The authors argue that companies that are only partially able to fulfil each of the VRIO criteria can still claim sustainable competitive advantage, as demonstrated by the case studies. Moreover, it is suggested that ECH is one of the key areas for innovation from within a firm and should be used in developing sustainable competitive advantage.