From opportunity to advantage: how firms can leverage generative AI affordances to drive success in competitive markets

Although firms with a proactive technology stance are increasingly adopting generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to enhance competitiveness, integrating GenAI into business operations presents significant challenges. To address this dilemma, we ground in affordance theory to explore how firms can leverage GenAI affordances to transform technological opportunism (TO) into sustained competitive advantages, particularly in highly competitive environments. We draw on survey data from 223 firms spanning different industries in China and find that three GenAI affordances—organizational memory, collaborative, and creational affordances—mediate the relationship between TO and competitive advantages. Moreover, competitive intensity amplifies the mediation effect of creational affordance instead of the mediation effects of organizational memory and collaborative affordances. We add to the extant AI-driven business literature by emphasizing the mechanisms behind the TO–competitive advantages link from the perspective of GenAI affordances. Lastly, our findings provide practical guidance for managers aiming to harness GenAI effectively.