Resource/Competitive Positioning Comparing and Contrasting Resource-Based Strategies with Competitive Positioning Strategies

Resourced-Based Strategies

Competitive Positioning Strategies

Strategies For-Profit in the 21st Century

There are two schools of thought regarding the composition of a competitive strategy. The first is resourced based. This approach identifies key resources and seeks to leverage these in order to provide value to the consumer and achieve a competitive advantage in the marketplace. The next strategy begins with identifying a niche or more general opportunity in the market and aligning resources within the organization to achieve a competitive position in regards to the competition. The former strategy can be generalized as more of a push strategy while the latter is more of a pull strategy. Both have advantages as well as disadvantages and fit certain circumstances better than others. In this research project, a brief literature review of both vantage points will be provided follow by a brief analysis of relevant implications.

Resourced-Based Strategies

Resource-based strategies are commonly applied to the industries which operate under conditions of scarcity. Firms operating in this industry usually try to maximize the efficient and effective use of the resources available to whether they are commodities, raw materials, or human capital. One study identified the need for an advanced market assessment to utilized as a research tool to uncover the under met or unmet needs in a community (Eschenfelder, 2010). If an accurate picture of the needs in the community is developed, then the resources available to the organization can be aligned in order to best fulfill these needs. Have access to key market metrics is vital for the success and profitability of resource-based strategies.

Although resource-based strategies are commonly thought in terms of tangible resources, this is not always the case. Another application of the resource based theory has been applied to the Chinese label attached to Chinese exports -- Made In China (Zhang & Su, 2009). It is postulated that since a brand...

Recently Chinese brands have had quality issues in some exports. Therefore to restore the value of the brand, China must view quality as a strategic resource that must be efficiently managed.
Research has also indicated that when an private organization expands through a greenfield strategy that a resource based approach allows companies to fully utilize internal competencies that translated into value added contributions in the new market entry (Berry-Stolzle, Altuntas, & M., 2010). The authors found evidence consistent with the view that the internal resources of the parent companies significantly contributed to the design of competencies within the subsidiaries. Since the resource based approach is not limited to traditional concepts of resources, it can also be applied to various organizational structures (Pertusa-Ortega, Molina-Azorin, & Claver-Cortes, 2010). The authors investigated how organizational structure affects firm performance and finds that in larger organizations an indirect influence exists due to the competitive strategy.

Another research project used a lens of a resourced-based view to examine whether new ventures in high-technology industries could add value to accumulated resources and provide the organization a competitive advantage (Lin, Lin, & Bou-Wen, 2010). It found that three core elements, technology, networking, and legitimacy are significant in predicting the success of such ventures. It is not difficult to conceptualize from the resource-based view how improvements in technologically derived resources would provide an overall benefit to the entire parent organization.

Competitive Positioning Strategies

The competitive-based strategy seeks to identify opportunity within a competitive landscape and mobilize resources to achieve the intended positioning. This makes sense on many levels, however one fundamental challenge to this approach is that the competitive landscape is dynamic in nature and therefore the strategy must be as well. One study analyzed companies' competitive strategies in regards to the competitive landscape and then also looked at the environmental situations found in the international construction industry in the United States and Turkey (Korkmaz & Messner, 2008). They found that while they strategies are fairly consistent in their overall ambitions, they do change for environmental considerations that occur over a longer time scale.

Another study poised the question of whether or not the stakeholder profile, the differences found in the structures, composition, and ambitions of stakeholder groups, influenced the competitive strategy that these firms pursue (Greenley, Hooley, Broderick, & Rudd, 2004). They found evidence that the stakeholder profile did influence the…