Effectiveness Of A Competitive Advantage

The company markets its unique products to youth markets which it feels are underrepresented and inadequately reached by its competitors. The company uses innovative and creative, and it effectively set Jones Soda apart from the competition. By allowing consumers to assist in package design, Jones Soda became a brand that concerned itself more with the consumer than with the actual product. This has made consumers feel more relevant, has given them a sense of ownership over the brand, and has encouraged customer loyalty. Due the field is so competitive with several ways to stay competitive in their designated field. Through distribution, brand name, brand image, price, labeling and packaging, advertising, quality of the beverage, and new ideas they have accomplished this. Jones Soda competes for customer appreciation, retail shelf space and for marketing focus by their distributors, who also distribute other beverage brands. Jones Soda currently distributes their products in several retail outlets. These outlets include Barnes and Noble, Panera Bread Company, Cost Plus World Markets, Starbucks and Target Corporation. As well as these mature locations, Jones Soda also distributes to other independent vendors.

It is the wish of every business to be able to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage. A competitive advantage can be considered to be an advantage, a condition or even a position that will make a firm to be able to operate efficiently and also be able to produce products or services that are of a higher quality than the previous ones or than the other competing firms. When a firm is able to achieve increased earnings as compared to the costs it incurred, then it can be said to have achieved a competitive advantage according to Michael Porter, a

To survive and thrive, an organization must create a competitive advantage. A competitive advantage is a product or service that an organization’s customers place a greater value on than similar offerings from a competitor. Unfortunately, competitive advantages are typically temporary because competitors often seek ways to duplicate the competitive advantage. In turn, organizations must develop a strategy based on a new competitive advantage.

Competitive strategy, after Porter, came to be defined as the strategy of a business unit which seeks to achieve sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA). The literature on strategy deems the market-based view (MBV) and the resource –based view (RBV) as two approaches to giving businesses the competitive edge they need to compete in their industries. Aside from having competitive advantage as their ultimate goal, the two approaches are also similar in the sense that they both make use of particular tools and models in their undertakings. They also differ in numerous ways,

Competitive advantage is explained by Mahoney and Pandian (1992) as the function of industry analysis, organizational governance and the firm’s effects in the form of resource advantages and strategies. In order for a firm to be competitive it must adapt to the volatile business environment and through strategic management decisions establish a competitive advantage that will ultimately produce superior performance relative to its competitors (Akimova 2000).

The current business environment is characterized by hyper competition, together with internal and external organizational constraints. There are also the issues of globalization, government regulations, advances in technology together with an ever changing customer needs and requirements. Creating and sustaining competitive advantage have thus become a major business challenge (Schein, 1992).

One of the greatest artist Pablo Picasso once said, “Action is the foundational key to success”. Well, we all agree with this quote, but there are many variety of factors that also implies in aspect of life. In the field of business, one of the key elements that ultimately controls the destiny of an organization, is their competitive advantage in a particular industry. The competitive advantage is defined as “an advantage over competitors gained by offering consumers greater value, either by means of lower prices or by providing greater benefits and service that justifies higher prices”("Competitive Advantage | Business."). In order to deeper understand of competitive advantage in a firm, I chose to read the book “Competitive Advantage

If   a   company   wants   to   be   successfull   in   their   business   it   has   to   be   able   to   create   competitive   advantage  over  it  competitor  in  a  same  business  area.  (De  Wit  &  Meyer,  2010).  What  approach   or   strategy   should   the   company   take   into   account   in   order   to   create   competitive   advantage   in   their  business  environment  is  the  core  issue  for  the  managers.

Sustainable competitive advantage entirely depends on how an organization performs in a competitive environment. In order to sustain and consolidate the company’s position, innovation becomes crucial. Companies should be in a position to embrace the changes in order to be abreast of the competition and hold its position (Daniela, P ,2014). Apart from innovation, the internal and the external forces along with the knowledge management form the vital factors. For an organization to gain the competitive advantage and sustain it, it has to innovate and globalize the vital factors mentioned.

As we move from the information age into what Simson, Downe, and Ahmad (2011) call the knowledge age, knowledge is power. Ideally, the power lies with the organizations that are able to leverage knowledge for competitive advantage (Okorafor, 2014). More often than not, however, the power lies with the individual who possess the knowledge; often, that individual develops a sense of knowledge ownership which influences knowledge behaviors (Husted & Michailova, 2002; Peng, 2013; Wang & Noe, 2010). According to Nonaka (1991, p 96), “[i]n an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge.” The inevitable retirement of the more than 67 million eligible individuals and subsequent loss of employee knowledge, experience, and skills may signify a considerable loss of competitive advantage for organizations (Appelbaum et al., 2012). In an effort to leverage knowledge for competitive advantage, organizations must focus on recruiting new personnel with desirable knowledge skills or abilities and on implementing knowledge management systems (KMS) which capture, share, and use existing individual knowledge.

“Competitive advantage literally is the ability to sustain profits that exceed the average for the industry through developing distinctive competencies: distinctive, because the competitors don’t have them and because they are fundamentally difficult to replicate” (Berry, 2012). Competitive advantage through people is critical for a business to succeed. Without people, businesses would lack the ability to have the innovations to differentiate their products or services from their contenders in the same field of interest. People are critical from in developing and producing the product or service for the company to drive customer satisfaction.

Furthermore, changes in management practices in recent years have had a profound impact on maintaining a competitive advantage in the marketplace for various companies. Maintaining a competitive advantage in the business world is very crucial for both growing companies and large companies. This is because by having a competitive edge, it leads to more customers purchasing products from the companies that have these edges because they are providing more services that companies selling the same products are not providing. This allows for those companies with the competitive edge to have a much higher net income at the end of their accounting cycle. Many changes in management practices have

In order to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage, it is essential to create effective strategies, which can beat the competitors (Competitive advantage, 2007).

This article explains the concept of sustainable competitive advantage, the relationship between strategic management and the four specific factors in relation to core competencies, resources and capabilities. It encompasses the Issues relating to competitive performance, and a critical view on how acknowledgement of these issues enables managers to gain an edge over other competing firms. According to Resource based approach, heterogeneity of a product is difficult when its resources are valuable, rare, difficult to imitate and non-substitutable. (Barney J, 1991) We examine these four criteria,

To gain high profitability and increase sales, competitive advantage is essential. As a business we should be able to tell our customers that we