resource-based view of competitive advantage

resource-based view of competitive advantage

ORDER NOW FOR AN ORIGINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT : resource-based view of competitive advantage

resource-based view of competitive advantage

Discuss the resource-based view of competitive advantage. Why is it important to understand organizational differences to use this approach?
Briefly define what is meant by competitive advantage. Are competitive advantage and sustained competitive advantage identical concepts? Compare and contrast the two concepts.
Professional Development:

Case Study #12: AIDSCAP Nepal

Conduct an internal environmental analysis, identifying the value-creating strengths and weaknesses for each value chain component. Model your response after Exhibit 4-4 (p. 144) “Value Creating Strengths and Value Reducing Weaknesses.”
For each strength, assess the competitive relevance, using Exhibit 4-6 (p. 149) as an example.
Exhibit 4–4: Value Creating Strengths and Value Reducing Weaknesses for American Healthways, Inc.
Value Chain Component
Service Delivery, Pre-Service
Service Delivery, Point-ofService
Service Delivery, AfterService
Support Activities, Culture
Support Activities, Strategic Resources
Value Reducing Weakness
• Limited brand identity • Disease management and care enhancement contracts require extensive selling because of lack of knowledge of key benefits • Revenues subject to seasonal pressures from enrollment processes of contracted health plans
• Company/employees have less experience in care enhancement programs in expanded product line areas such as end-state renal disease, fibromyalgia, etc. • A majority of company’s revenues accounted for by three health plans
• Incomplete or inaccurate data could render independent evaluation of clinical interventions useless

resource-based view of competitive advantage

• Acquisition of StatusOne Health System with different culture • Company’s reluctance to declare cash dividend may discourage some classes of investors
• Hospital contracts decreasing • Cost to maintain IT for compliance with federal and state regulations • High labor costs from competition for staff • Volatility of stock price and trading volume
Value Creating Strength
• Customer benefit: care enhancement/disease management concept (attractive to health plans, hospitals, physicians, patients) • Customer benefit developed: geographical coverage (attractive to large health plans) • Six care enhancement centers
• Successful management of diseases leading to reduced costs and increased customer satisfaction • Company employees highly experienced in implementing care enhancement programs in certain areas, such as diabetes • Integrated care product line attracts broad range of patients • Number of covered lives increasing making economies of scale possible
• Alliance with Johns Hopkins Health System to independently evaluate effectiveness of clinical interventions
• First disease management and care enhancement provider in nation accredited by all three accrediting agencies • Highly professionalized culture • Experienced management team of individuals with extensive health care experience and longevity with the company • Conservative fiscal management philosophy: retain earnings for future growth and development • Company has state-of-the-art medical information technology • Company has sound financial position: cash, working capital, stockholder equity increasing over past year • Earnings per share of common stock has increased despite 3:2 stock split in 2001 and 2:1 stock split in 2003.
Exhibit 4–6: Strategic Thinking Map of Competitive Advantages Relative to Strengths in General

Is the Value of the Strength High or Low? (High/Low?)

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor