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The paper examines the determinants of the level of investment in net operating working capital by firms in Malaysia. Data from 192 companies spanning a period of 8 years (20002007) are analysed using the OLS regression technique for this purpose. The study finds that in times of economic expansion, younger and smaller firms with less tangible assets, low leverage, high immediate sales growth, high operating cash flows, less volatile revenues and low levels of asymmetric information are likely to have the highest investments in operating working capital. Board characteristics, namely size and the independence of the board, are not found to have any significant influence on the working capital investment of firms.

As researchers and practitioners alike have focused on the importance of sustainability of competitive advantage, this study examined whether or not various operations strategies - low–cost leadership, quality differentiation, innovation differentiation and service differentiation - have serious effects on sustainability of competitive advantage, and whether suitable resources can improve the effects as a moderator. This study was an exploratory descriptive project with primary data collected from 80 Malaysian manufacturing companies. Results were analysed using bivariate correlation and multiple regressions. The findings showed that suitable resources cannot be considered as a strong moderator for the effects of low–cost leadership, quality differentiation and innovation differentiation on sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). On the other hand, suitable resources leveraged the impact of service differentiation on SCA. Given that no studies on this point were found in the literature, the findings from this study should bring to light several valuable points for scholars and manufacturers.

Theorists and practitioners alike emphasise the importance of competitive advantage in garnering maximum profit and performance. Still, there is a presence of continuous confusion among managers in measuring a company’s competitive advantage with regards to its temporality and sustainability. In order to look into this issue, the authors introduced product lifecycle as a time-dimension measure and analysed its effects on optimum financial performance. In addition, this research study attempted to identify the appropriate operations strategies that could bring about sustainable competitive advantage. Operations strategies can be divided into four subcategories: low-cost leadership, quality differentiation, service differentiation and innovation differentiation. The primary data collected via questionnaires for this study came from the chief executive officers and chief operating officers of Malaysian manufacturing companies. Results were tabulated through the application of a multiple regression analysis. ...