Preview

Resources Capabilities

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
20347 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Resources Capabilities
CSAC05 1/13/07 9:21 Page 123

5
Analyzing Resources and Capabilities

Analysts have tended to define assets too narrowly, identifying only those that can be measured, such as plant and equipment. Yet the intangible assets, such as a particular technology, accumulated consumer information, brand name, reputation, and corporate culture, are invaluable to the firm’s competitive power. In fact, these invisible assets are often the only real source of competitive edge that can be sustained over time.
—HIROYUKI ITAMI, MOBILIZING INVISIBLE ASSETS

You’ve gotta do what you do well.
—LUCINO NOTO, FORMER VICE CHAIRMAN, EXXON MOBIL

OUTLINE l Introduction and Objectives l The Role of Resources and l Organizational Capabilities Classifying Capabilities The Architecture of Capability l Appraising Resources and Capabilities Establishing Competitive Advantage Sustaining Competitive Advantage Appropriating the Returns to Competitive Advantage l Putting Resource and Capability

Capabilities in Strategy Formulation
Basing Strategy on Resources and Capabilities Resources and Capabilities as Sources of Profit l The Resources of the Firm Tangible Resources Intangible Resources Human Resources

Analysis to Work: A Practical Guide
Step 1 Identify the Key Resources and Capabilities
123

CSAC05 1/13/07 9:21 Page 124

124

PART II

THE TOOLS OF STRATEGY ANALYSIS

Step 2 Appraising Resources and Capabilities Step 3 Developing Strategy Implications l Developing Resources and Capabilities The Relationship between Resources and Capabilities Replicating Capabilities Developing New Capabilities Approaches to Capability Development

l Summary l Self-Study Questions l Appendix: Knowledge Management

and the Knowledge-based View of the Firm l Notes

Introduction and Objectives
In Chapter 1, I noted that the focus of strategy thinking has been shifted from the external environment towards its internal environment. In this chapter, we will make the same transition.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Best Essays

    Staples, Inc. Swot

    • 1971 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Strategies for attaining competitive advantages emphasize developing and configuring existing resource strengths into a valuable and unique resource base. If the firm's resources are unique, rare, valuable, and inimitable, they can be a source of core…

    • 1971 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dierickx, I. and K. Cool (1989). Asset Stock Accumulation and Sustainability Of Competitive Advantage. Management Science, 35: 1504.…

    • 9307 Words
    • 38 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    BUSI 610 Group DB Forum 1

    • 2057 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Grant, R. (1991). The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formulation (1991). California Management Review, 33, (3) 114-135…

    • 2057 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Identify those resources and competences of the firm (or SBU) that are likely to provide sustainable competitive advantage. Justify why these resources and competences can be regarded as strategic capabilities using the four criteria covered in the textbook.…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    What Are Capabilities?

    • 270 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Capability is a capacity for a set of resources to integratively perform a stretch task. It represents the identity of the firm as perceived by both its employees and customers. It is the firm’s ability to perform better than competitors using a distinctive and difficult to replicate set of business attributes. The organization’s capability is comprised of three core assets – physical capital, including all tangible assets; technology capital, including product technology, R&D, information technology and process technology; and human capital, including employees and contract staff.…

    • 270 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Generally it can be found that in a particular industry some firms will out- perform other firms usually to do with their internal environment. The main reason for this is due to the resources and competences, or capabilities that a firm possesses. Resources refer to ‘inputs to an organisation’s production or operating processes’, and they can either be tangible or intangible. In the business industry it is generally thought that intangible resources tend to be more valuable than tangible ones, the reason for this being that you cannot just buy intangible resources, they are hard to acquire and are built up over time, with time being an important aspect of strategic management. For example, a company such as The Body Shop has spent many years building up their brand image and forming relationships with suppliers and customers, meaning they possess very valuable, intangible assets. Whittington (2005) said ‘in a knowledge-based economy, intellectual capital is likely to be a major asset of any organisation’, further illustrating the importance of intangible resources. Characteristics of tangible resources, such as equipment, are that they are easily traded, ownership is generally easy to specify, and they need to be maintained to stop them from degrading over time with over use.…

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Hoopes, d, Madsen, T & Walker, G. ‘Guest Editors Introduction to the Special Issue: Why is there a Resourced-Based View? Toward a Theory of Competitive Advantage.’ Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 24, No. 10, pp 889-902. (2003)…

    • 2493 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Burberry Strategy

    • 2465 Words
    • 10 Pages

    It is important for every business to clearly understand how resources and capabilities affect firm performance. As Grant (2005) defined, resources are the productive assets owned by the firm and capabilities are what the firm can do. In fact, companies that have sustainable competitive advances have been developed and exploited based on their internal resources and capabilities. Furthermore, they have successfully exploited external environment. In this essay, I will explore the topic area of ‘Resources & Capabilities’ with regards to a UK’s fashion group; the prominent designer label, Burberry GRP. In particular, the research will focus on the Strategic Business Unit of Burberry; understanding and explaining how they utilize the resources and competencies to achieve a competitive advantage. In order to do this, this paper will address on theory based from work in the areas of the ‘Resource-Based View’ and ‘Resources and Capabilities’ as well as using theoretical frameworks to give a holistic view of the strategic issues Burberry.…

    • 2465 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Proctor And Gamble

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The resource-based view origins is in Economics, distinctive competencies, and general management capability; it views the firm as A collection of resources, skills, and abilities; its approach to strategy formulation is the acquisition of superior resources, skills, and abilities; according to the theory, the source of competitive advantage is the possession of resources, skills, and abilities that are valuable, rare, and difficult to imitate by…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    zara essay

    • 3746 Words
    • 12 Pages

    The resource-based view has emerged over time as one of the significant theories of strategic management (Barney 1986). The resource-based view is centered on the notion of sustaining a competitive advantage primarily through the application of a bundle of resources at the firms’ disposal (Wernerfelt 1984). The concept of resources is all encompassing of organisations assets, capabilities, firm attributes, information and knowledge (barney 1991). Usually divided into two categories, tangible resources are objects within the…

    • 3746 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the last two decades, one of the most fundamental questions emerging in strategic management is how firms achieve and sustain competitive advantage. In a simplified world, understanding how firms achieve and maintain superior or abnormal returns means comprehending how firms position themselves in a certain market, what they produce and how they use resources at their disposal to do so. In this sense we may distinguish between the positional perspective, developed by Michael Porter, according to which achieving competitive advantage is the result of exploitation of imperfections in the market, the resource based perspective, which states that competitive advantage lies in the ownership of valuable resources, and the dynamic capabilities view, which follows the resource based view but also adds the dimension of time in the equation. In this essay, I will compare and contrast these three views after having described them, and will end by illustrating how they can all be brought together.…

    • 2407 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Making Ebay Work

    • 4430 Words
    • 18 Pages

    The first part of this paper will take you through the concept of strategic capability. This is the summary of the chapter 3 from the textbook, Exploring Corporate Strategy. This part will focus on definition of strategic capability, the importance of resources and competencies to achieving strategic capabilities, cost efficiency, and how strategic capabilities can lead to sustainable development. The second part focuses on the background of the case study company, eBay. There is a brief background about the company and summary of the case study.…

    • 4430 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Strategic Analysis Burberry

    • 4740 Words
    • 19 Pages

    Burberry, one of the famous designer brands in the world was started by a 21-year old draper’s apprentice, Thomas Burberry. This all started with a small outfitter’s shop in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England (The Telegraph 2011).…

    • 4740 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Coach Inc

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Resources and capabilities include firm’s financial, physical, human, and organisational assets used by them for…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A resource or skill is said to be valuable if it contributes in formulating a strategy to improve its efficiency. If a resource or skill is posessed by a large number of companies then it is not a source of Strategic competitive advantage. The companies product or service should reflect the differentiating factors that are key buying criteria to the customers. If the key buying criteria changes over period of time, the sustainable competitive advantage would depend on how well the company influence the key buying criteria or adopt to the changes. Competitive advantage is expected to lead to superior performance indicated by financial ratios. The barriers to imitate the firms resources are bound to decay, there is a need to constantly monitor and invest in the present source of advantage and also invest in other potential sources of advantage.…

    • 717 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays