Competitive dynamics scholarship has long held that inter-firm rivalry plays out through competitive actions and response. This action-based view overlooks rivalries where firms compete more on claims about their actions than the actions themselves. We introduce a claim-based view of competitive dynamics to address this explanatory shortcoming. Building on empirical insights from a qualitative study of rivalry between two Azorean dairy producers, we theorize when claim-based rivalry can occur, how firms can come out ahead during such rivalry, and why some firms are better positioned than others to do so. Our proposals provide a platform to contrast the claim- and action-based views, as well as highlight research directions for elaborating the former. Introducing the claim-based view complements and adds novel explanatory utility to the ubiquitous action-based one.