Enhancing Business Sustainability and Competitive Advantage by Using a Strategic Mathematical Computing Model

Abstract

Nowadays, enterprises are trying hard to reach sustainability when the industry faces the challenge of high cost in the era of meager profit. Companies with corporate sustainable approaches based on cost leadership are trying to reduce operational expenses, increase business efficiency, and implement comprehensive cost reductions within their organisations. Cost is a strategic issue for businesses to survive and stand out. The deployment of profit costs is becoming strategically important to be sustainable and competitive in the market. The research design of this study integrates both qualitative and quantitative methods. 143 valid responses to snowball sampling in Taiwan (108 responses) and mainland China (35 responses) and 24 interviews with executive-level employees in Taiwan were conducted. In addition, a total of 51 companies’ financial statements were reviewed to triangulate the foundation of research findings. Reducing costs strategically should be considered as a principal concern of a firm that wants to make its efforts for business sustainability. The result shows that nonstrategic costs are between 10 and 30 percent of the sales turnover (revenue) in a firm, and strategic costs normally account for 70 to 90 percent of its all costs. Furthermore, only 20% really makes a difference to stand out from other market players. This provides a new orientation of cost management opinion that there is a need for paying more attention and extending the concept of strategic cost management to the management of nonstrategic costs. It is also supported that the dichotomy of nonstrategic and strategic is a viable and practical way for managing all costs across sectors, industries, and business scales from a strategic and sustainable perspective.