Assessing sustainability of company’s market leadership: Industry-specific approach

Abstract

The paper deals with assessing sustainability of the market leadership of a large company in the selected industry. Factors, the joint action of which results in sustainable market leadership of the company over time, were identified. Using these factors together, management can create a management concept of sustainable market leadership for a large company in any industry and keep it up to date throughout the life cycle of the company. The confluence of factors includes three necessary blocks: factors that are distinctive for sustainable companies, factors that are distinctive for innovative companies and factors that determine the accuracy of the development, implementation and monitoring of the implementation of the concept by sustainable development management. A method for assessing sustainability of company’s market leadership was proposed. The threshold requirement of company’s market leadership in the industry was determined. It was proved that to ensure market leadership, it is not necessary to achieve 100% compliance with the best global companies. It is sufficient to achieve the sustainability level of market leadership not lower than that one of benchmark companies in the industry — the threshold requirement of the industry. The method was tested through application to one of the leading air transport companies — Moscow Domodedovo Airport. The total research period was 15 years. It was proved that when the value of the indicator of market leadership sustainability decreases below the threshold for the industry, it leads to a decline in market positions of a particular company. Also, as a result of additional verification, it was found that a decrease in the value of the indicator of market leadership sustainability results in a decrease in the level of service quality provided by companies. Consequently, the indicator of market leadership sustainability may point to the company’s ability to reach leading market positions and achieve other goals of a various nature. The elaborated method can be useful for improving company’s competitiveness and achieving a leading position in the industry.