How firms achieve and sustain competitive advantages is a fundamental question in the field of strategic management. Accordingly, diverse, sometimes contradictory concepts and approaches can be found in the literature. We explore which of these concepts and methods are suitable for which companies and business models to create competitiveness in a globalized, digital and interconnected world. For this, we distinguish four different competitive arenas characterized by different conditions and requirements for competitiveness. They result from the specific approach to two fundamental tensions. First, there is a tension between improving the already established capabilities versus investing in innovation. The second tension directly refers to the possible modes of interaction with the business environment, focused either on rivalry or on cooperation. At the ISM we are also interested in how the change between competitive arenas proceeds. What does this imply in terms of competencies and skills, strategies, structures and values?

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