The primary means for gaining and sustaining competitive advantages for companies are shifting downstream

When a company has a competitive advantage, it means that they have been able to get ahead of their competitors in one or multiple ways. This can come as a price advantage, where company has the means of creating a product for a cheaper price therefore can price it lower than their competitor. Additionally, a company could develop a logistics advantage that would make it cheaper to export/import products or simply give them a lot more reach to other countries than their competitors might not be able to. By companies shifting their competitive advantage focus to downstream activities means that they are concentrating more on consumer behavior and actual markets, rather than concentrating on upstream activities which are related to production and logistics. These downstream activities can include a higher concentration on marketing to influence brand image and consumer wants, e-commerce can also play a huge advantage if a firm is able to develop a direct to consumer application to drive online sales and gain a competitive advantage. By being more readily available to clients, that’s how companies are able to gain a competitive advantage downstream.

In a circular economy, firms are looking to remove waste out of the system and continue with the continuous use of resources available. This concept aims to build and rebuild overall system health by minimizing the use of resource inputs and creating a closed system to reuse, share, recycle and remanufacture to name a few. With this concept in mind, the creation of competitive advantages would not be shifted downstream to consumers directly but rather stay upstream. Since it is a closed system, the advantages would be created in ability to reuse all sorts of waste and feed it to a different production process therefore lowering the cost and price of a product.