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A Practical Approach for Determining the Competitive Advantages of a Business

Received: 9 June 2019     Accepted: 27 June 2019     Published: 9 July 2019
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Abstract

If a business is to enjoy a competitive advantage over the long-term it must be one which competitors find that expensive to copy. What will be offered to the marketplace that is unique and valuable is the competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is helping businesses to answer the questions of “where are we?” and “what are our differential advantages?” in an effective way. This requires using practical and beneficial techniques during the comprehensive internal and comparison analysis. Internal analysis begins with a history of the business and assesses its conformity to overall goals, target groups and general strategies, etc. After identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the business, we then compare them with the key factors in the market development phases (early development, growth, maturity and decline stages), capacities of main competitors (their objectives, strengths and weaknesses, and strategic approaches), and the industry’s success factors (such as costs, relationships, knowledge and structure sources of success determinants), for identifying competitive advantages. For determination of the competitive advantages and so through comparison, using comparison worksheets would be very practical and beneficial. In short, this paper helps businesses to find out their competitive advantages by offering them totally new practical and effective analysis techniques.

Published in American Journal of Operations Management and Information Systems (Volume 4, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajomis.20190402.13
Page(s) 63-70
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Strategy, Competitive Advantages, Comparison Analysis, Internal Analysis, Analysis Techniques

References
[1] Butuner, H. (2017), “Practical Useful Techniques for Performing Strategic Internal Status Analysis”, International Journal of Management Sciences and Business Research, 6 (1): 23-30.
[2] Butuner, H. (2016), “Shortened Systematic Strategic Planning (SSP): A Comprehensive Framework for Developing Strategies”, Istanbul University Journal of the School of Business, 27 (80): 96-135.
[3] Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D. and Hoskisson, R. E. (2005), Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization, South-Western Thomson, Mason.
[4] Humble, A. and Radina, E. (2018), How Qualitative Data Analysis Happens, Routledge, New York.
[5] Keown, A. J. and Martin, J. (2011), Financial Management: Principles and Applications, Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
[6] Kotler, P. (2002), Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control, Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
[7] Nickels, W. G., McHugh, J. M. and McHugh, S. M. (2002), Understanding Business, McGraw- Hill Higher Education, Columbus.
[8] Parnell, J. A. (2013), Strategic Management: Theory and Practice, Saga Publications, London.
[9] Pearce, J. and Robinson, R. (2011), Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation and Control, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, Columbus.
[10] Porter, M. E. (1998), Competitive Advantage, Free Press.
[11] Vernon, R. (1979), “The Product Cycle Hypothesis in a New International Environment”, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 41 (4): 255-267.
[12] Wickham, P. A. (2006), Strategic Entrepreneurship, Pearson Education Limited, London.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Hakan Butuner. (2019). A Practical Approach for Determining the Competitive Advantages of a Business. American Journal of Operations Management and Information Systems, 4(2), 63-70. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajomis.20190402.13

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    ACS Style

    Hakan Butuner. A Practical Approach for Determining the Competitive Advantages of a Business. Am. J. Oper. Manag. Inf. Syst. 2019, 4(2), 63-70. doi: 10.11648/j.ajomis.20190402.13

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    AMA Style

    Hakan Butuner. A Practical Approach for Determining the Competitive Advantages of a Business. Am J Oper Manag Inf Syst. 2019;4(2):63-70. doi: 10.11648/j.ajomis.20190402.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajomis.20190402.13,
      author = {Hakan Butuner},
      title = {A Practical Approach for Determining the Competitive Advantages of a Business},
      journal = {American Journal of Operations Management and Information Systems},
      volume = {4},
      number = {2},
      pages = {63-70},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajomis.20190402.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajomis.20190402.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajomis.20190402.13},
      abstract = {If a business is to enjoy a competitive advantage over the long-term it must be one which competitors find that expensive to copy. What will be offered to the marketplace that is unique and valuable is the competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is helping businesses to answer the questions of “where are we?” and “what are our differential advantages?” in an effective way. This requires using practical and beneficial techniques during the comprehensive internal and comparison analysis. Internal analysis begins with a history of the business and assesses its conformity to overall goals, target groups and general strategies, etc. After identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the business, we then compare them with the key factors in the market development phases (early development, growth, maturity and decline stages), capacities of main competitors (their objectives, strengths and weaknesses, and strategic approaches), and the industry’s success factors (such as costs, relationships, knowledge and structure sources of success determinants), for identifying competitive advantages. For determination of the competitive advantages and so through comparison, using comparison worksheets would be very practical and beneficial. In short, this paper helps businesses to find out their competitive advantages by offering them totally new practical and effective analysis techniques.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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    T2  - American Journal of Operations Management and Information Systems
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    JO  - American Journal of Operations Management and Information Systems
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    AB  - If a business is to enjoy a competitive advantage over the long-term it must be one which competitors find that expensive to copy. What will be offered to the marketplace that is unique and valuable is the competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is helping businesses to answer the questions of “where are we?” and “what are our differential advantages?” in an effective way. This requires using practical and beneficial techniques during the comprehensive internal and comparison analysis. Internal analysis begins with a history of the business and assesses its conformity to overall goals, target groups and general strategies, etc. After identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the business, we then compare them with the key factors in the market development phases (early development, growth, maturity and decline stages), capacities of main competitors (their objectives, strengths and weaknesses, and strategic approaches), and the industry’s success factors (such as costs, relationships, knowledge and structure sources of success determinants), for identifying competitive advantages. For determination of the competitive advantages and so through comparison, using comparison worksheets would be very practical and beneficial. In short, this paper helps businesses to find out their competitive advantages by offering them totally new practical and effective analysis techniques.
    VL  - 4
    IS  - 2
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Author Information
  • Industrial Management and Engineering Co. (IMECO), Istanbul, Turkey

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