The present study seeks to deepen our understanding of the extent to which the
development and maintenance of a firm’s competitive advantage or position is influenced,
in large, by those with whom it interacts in the wider network. As the study reveals,
although each of the focal actors strive to offer higher customer value and satisfaction in
their respective markets, a firm’s total capacity has been demonstrated here to be its own
internal capacity and the external capacity, to which it has access to as the result of its
interactionwith some specific others in its network. For example, Kanthal’s highly valued
performance has its roots in its regular and intensive interaction with other significant
actors (e.g. parent company, sister companies, overseas suppliers, and universities). They
all affect and are affected by Kanthal’s long-term learning and/or experiences in dealing
with wires and serving customers that buy wires. The same can be said of Stokes’s
production and sales of electric and industrial elements.