This is a paraphrase of some of the things Michael Porter said in his book,Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance - http://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Advantage-Creating-Sustain... : There is not much gain in having a first mover advantage by itself. But, if the first mover locks up key resources for success then that gives a sustainable advantage. This can be done by fast followers also. The competitive advantage strategy should be to capture resources so that competitors can't access them. For instance, he mentioned Walmart strategy of buying key locations before their competitors figure out that these location were necessary for success.

Other means of locking in resources may include contracts with suppliers and with authorities or patents. The main theme is to block competitors from resources they need for success.