Investigating the Relationship between innovation strategy and business Competitive advantages

Abstract The goal of this paper is investigating the relationship between innovation strategy and business competitive advantages in Iran especially in the oil industry. Companies today operate in a very dynamic, uncertain and competitive environment. Companies are trying to achieve competitive advantage in order to help them obtain a better and a stable position in the marketplace. The best way for companies to achieve a competitive advantage is through innovation. Innovation Strategy is a process of exploring your emerging future, understanding the changing needs of your customers, and using the insights gained in those explorations to identify new business opportunities for company. The structural equation modeling (SEM) used to develop a model in Iran. For the data processing, we used the Structural equation modeling. The population of this study are managers of the upstream sector of the oil Ministry, which is about 4,000, according to Morgan, questionnaires among 351 managers and experts who are familiar with innovation and business advantages(n=351), which ultimately distributed 247 questionnaires have been answered. The findings were obtained in two parts: descriptive and inferential. The results showed that there is a direct and significant relationship between innovation strategy and business Competitive in Iran.