Today's concern and problem for most of the companies is the way of surviving and prospering in current and future periods of time in the marketplace. Sustainable competitive ability can be one of the ways of adaptation to the global business and rapid environment requirements. Operational competitiveness is not easy to be sustainably improved because of unpredictable environment situations, such as continuous increasing customer needs, global competitive environment, rapid and unpredictable changes in government policy, company crisis during significant changes etc. However, it is possible to make adaptive adjustments on operations strategy level in dynamic business environment and to become competitive enough compared to the competitors. The purpose of this paper is to define and assess sustainable competitive advantage and the direction of development in housing business. It can be analysed by two core factors, i.e. Sense and Respond (S&R) methodology, Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) as well as Sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) method. This study also focuses on applying S&R method in order to optimize operational competitiveness as well as defining the competitive priorities of the case company. The analysis results show the critical areas in different departments of the case company, which can help the managers to make quick decisions. In addition, they reveal that during the crisis the resource allocation is continuously changing and therefore the operation strategy of the case company is not well defined as well as competitive advantages are not enough sustainable.

A method combining economic evaluation and social impact assessment creates information that can be applied when making decisions about a new tenement building or renovation of existing buildings. The aim of the economic evaluation is to ensure that economic aspects are adequately considered and investment is realizable from a monetary point of view. Social impact assessment reveals intangible pros and cons related to an investment or investments to be considered. This paper presents a framework that combines economic and social aspects and supports decision making related to affordable housing. Key words: Decision-making; Investment; Affordable housing; Impact assessment; Economic; Social Resumo: Um método que combina avaliação tanto econômica quanto do impacto social cria informações que podem ser aplicadas ao tomar decisões sobre um novo prédio ou renovação de edifícios existentes. O objetivo da avaliação econômica é garantir que os aspectos econômicos sejam adequadamente considerados e o investimento seja realizável do ponto de vista monetário. A avaliação de impacto social revela prós e contras intangíveis relacionados a um investimento ou investimentos a serem considerados. Este artigo apresenta uma estrutura que combina ambos os aspectos econômicos e sociais, e apoia a tomada de decisões relacionadas a habitação acessível. Palavras-chave: Tomada de decisões; Investimentos; Habitação acessível; Avaliação de Impacto Econômico e Social.

Accepted: 3 July 2016Investments towards sustainable development are vital for the future and they must be carefully planned to deliver immediate and long-term benefits. Hence, the ability to communicate the forms of impact of sustainable investments to local societies, people, investors and other stakeholders can provide a competitive advantage. However, the assessments are often under pressure to demonstrate short-term effects rather than emphasise the long-term impact. In addition, indirect and intangible forms of impacts should not be measured solely in economic terms. This paper proposes an assessment framework to support the integrated economic and social impact assessment of sustainable investments aimed at improving physical and socio-economic wellbeing. The framework is demonstrated in two case studies: new construction and renovation investments in affordable housing and social impact investment in sustainable development. The investments in the case studies are evaluated, selected and prioritized not only in terms of money but also with regard to sustainability, social acceptability and their overall impact on society, as a whole. The results indicate that a systematic integrated assessment of monetary and non-monetary factors can be successfully combined with the sustainable development decisions.

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