What Is Walmart's Competitive Advantage

Competitive advantage exists when a firm has strategy, product or an attribute that makes the firm capable of delivering similar benefit to that of competitors at a cheaper cost. Having competitive advantage is not enough the company should be capable of sustaining that particular competitive advantage for a longer period of time.

Competitive advantages are conditions that make a company to produce goods or services at a lower price or in a more desirable quality and taste for customers. MIFCO achieve the leadership in the market by offering the products in different varieties and a great taste. The company makes sure that the customers should get the best quality of products.

There are two different types of competitive advantage: low cost and differentiation. We will develop them in this part I.

Wal-Mart is a company that has taken its core competencies, which are the capabilities the firm emphasizes and performs especially well while pursuing its vision (Ireland, Hoskisson, Hitt, 2008), and turned them into competitive advantages. Core competencies must satisfy four characteristics in order to be a competitive advantage. These advantages, according to our text, include: *valuable, *rare, *difficult to imitate,*nonsubstitutable.

“There are 2 types of Competitive Advantage. Firms with lower relative cost than rivals have a Cost Advantage. Firms that are able to charge higher prices (have a higher WTP) than their competitors have a Differentiation Advantage. Firms that have both, low cost and high WTP, have Dual Advantage”( Proenca,Jose).

An example of a competitive advantage: “McDonalds’ competitive advantage is its large number of restaurants, more than double its competitors, making it more convenient for customers than any other fast food restaurant in the world.”

Thus, managers need to identify particular capacity to defeat their opponent or get the leading position in their competition, in other words, to define their competitive advantage. A study by Passemard and Calantone (2000, p.18) shows that accomplishing strategies successfully would enhance the company’s performance by surpassing other current and potential rivals with the method of competitive advantage. And the result indicates the importance to define one’s competitive advantage. For instance, Virgin and easyJet, two of British major airline corporations, the former represents flair and the latter represents value. These are their great definition and competitive advantages in which differing from other English airline companies, and fits one of Porter’s theory very well-three generic competitive strategies, one is differentiation (Porter, 1985a). In addition, cheaper or higher quality products and service prefer to advertise on customers. As most big brands do, their unique products or services will be recognized from target markets, with their global brand awareness. A simple approach to achieve this objective is to build differentiation from others in the same sector, to help customers distinguish products or companies from unique brand feature. Therefore, competitive advantage plays a crucial role in companies long-term planning.

Competitive advantage is the point of power for any organization as it is the point from which an organization can maximize it's profits if it's been planned for it well .

Competitive advantage is that a company has better ability in earning profit and profit growth compared to its competitors for the same group of customers in one industry.

Competitive advantage(CA) is an advantage competitors gain by providing or offering customers or consumers greater value for their money through product and service differentiation or through lower prices. Maintaining competitive advantage is crucial to many businesses or organizations' success in order to survive in the market. Competitive advantage is characterized by superior performance which could be an attribute to outperform the competitors whether current or potential; or gaining a higher market share in a particular industry thereby ensuring market leadership; or ultimately, maximization of profit.(JOBBER 2010)

Competitive strategy is the moves and methods that the firm has taken and is taking to appeal buyers, improve its market position, and to endure competitive pressures. The strategy is about what a firm’s capability to try to knock off competitors and attain competitive advantage, which can be offensive or defensive. There are three approaches to competitive strategy, which are low-cost leadership strategy where struggling to be the overall low-cost manufacturer in the in industry. Moreover, pursuing to distinguish one’s product offering from competitors (differentiation strategy), and the last one is focus or niche strategy where aiming on thin portion of the market rather than the whole market (Porter, 1998).

In order to achieve competitive advantage, a firm must perform one or more value-creating activity that is more superior compared to other competitors. Superior value is created through lower costs or superior benefits to the buyers.

What is a competitive advantage for the company? How can the management use it? Make SWOT analysis for the company.

convenience of location’ (Queensland government, 2016). As Resource-based view (RBV) theory holds that the competitive advantage and superior performance

exists when the firm is able to deliver the same benefits as competitors but at a