Abstract One of the essential aspects of a company's design is its source of competitive advantage. Extrapolating from Raymond Loewy's famous design strategy acronym, MAYA—the Most Advanced Yet Acceptable Principle—and treating the firm as the object of design, this article explains the competitive advantage of firms from a design perspective. Our design-based recommendation for the competitive advantage of firms is to focus on shaping heterogeneity-based advantages of the firm in ways its paying customers would deem valuable. The novelty and conventionality dynamics of its industry will influence the degree of heterogeneity of the firm. Firms can shape their heterogeneity-based advantages through policies relating to organizational structure, routines, and product portfolio to name a few. Going beyond the role of a design in creating rents above and beyond what other firms can imagine, our claim focuses on the ways in which heterogeneity is a fundamental driver of its competitive advantage. If correct, the design-based view suggests that the ideal level of heterogeneity of the firm relative to current competitive conditions and evolution paths adopted by the firm and its competitors is more fundamental to firm profitability than its resources.

中文翻译：

---

公司设计：第 2 部分 - 竞争优势

摘要 公司设计的重要方面之一是其竞争优势的来源。本文借鉴 Raymond Loewy 著名的设计策略首字母缩写 MAYA（最先进但可接受的原则）并将公司视为设计对象，从设计角度解释了公司的竞争优势。我们对公司竞争优势的基于设计的建议是专注于以付费客户认为有价值的方式塑造公司基于异质性的优势。其行业的新颖性和传统性动态将影响公司的异质性程度。公司可以通过与组织结构、惯例和产品组合等相关的政策来塑造其基于异质性的优势。除了设计在创造超出其他公司想象的租金方面的作用之外，我们的主张还侧重于异质性是其竞争优势的基本驱动力的方式。如果正确的话，基于设计的观点表明，相对于当前竞争条件和公司及其竞争对手所采用的进化路径，公司异质性的理想水平对于公司盈利能力而言比其资源更重要。