Strategist Michael Porter has an implicit view that competitive advantage stems from activities, in particular from networks of reinforcing activities that are hard to replicate in their totality. It’s not the individual parts of the business that matter, but how they are strung together and built to reinforce one another in a unique activity system. Competitive advantage comes from the entire system of activities; while any individual activity within the system may be copied, competitors cannot produce the same benefit unless they manage to duplicate the entire system.
