What Are the Internal Factors That Strongly Affect an Organisation’s Present and Future Performance? Critically Evaluate the Role of Firm-Specific Resources as an Element of an Organisations Strategy Formulation and Implementation

Barney, J., 1991. Firm Resources and Sustainable Competitive Advantage. Journal of Management, 17 (1), 99-120.

Acquisition and organisation of resources can be critical success factor in an organization. While on the other hand, change requires a firm to gain expand and utilise resource such as human, financial, knowledge as a crucial asset. Resource based approach supports this view and as Tywoniak (2007) claimed by that resource based view is the most dominant theory in history of management. This is achieved by targeting state of sustained competitive advantage by controlling resources and capabilities. This view emphasis on the need for a ‘fit’ among capabilities and external market, and since each firm has unique capabilities and resources, this result in achieving strategic

The basis of a firms ability to successfully execute any strategy lie in it’s resources and capabilities.The greatest plan in the world means nothing without the means to carry it out. Resources, defined in the text Modern Competitive Strategy are: “relatively observable, tradable asset[s] that contributes to a firm’s market position by improving customer value, lowering cost, or both.”

2. The resource-based model assumes that each organization is a collection of resources and capabilities, which provide the basis for a firm‘s strategy and its primary source of above-average returns. Use this this model to outline Lululemon‘s core competencies and how their capabilities will need to evolve to sustain above-average returns. Compare the resource-based model to the Industry/Organization model with respect to their ability to explain and clarify how Lululemon succeeds.

To stay tuned to the recent situation in order not to miss perspective opportunities, an organization should go on with continuous scanning of its environment. According to Jobber, environmental scanning is “the process of monitoring and analyzing the marketing environment of a company” (Jobber, 2010, p.93). Aguilar states (Aguilar, 1967, cited in Costa, 1995, pp.4-5) that environmental scanning serves the purpose of gathering information about the facts and events happening around the company in order to let the management lead the organization in the right direction. Most of the authors agree on the same main function of environmental scanning.

He suggested that sustained competitive advantage derives from the resources and capabilities a firm controls that are valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable, and not substitutable. He further added that the resources and capabilities can be viewed in form of tangible and intangible assets. There are four different categories of resources financial, physical, human, and organization.

Scanning of internal and external environment are key part for decision making and planning for achieving of organizational objectives. Internal and external environment are called SWOT Analysis.

For a business to be successful and have a competitive advantage, it is important to evaluate the company’s resources and capabilities (Pitt & Koufopoulos, 2012). Resources in a company are the productive assets owned (tangible or intangible) whereas capabilities are what the company can do with this (Grant, 2010). “Establishing competitive

It is defined as all the forces or conditions that are available within an environment that affects an organization and business. It is also known as controllable factors because business can control them. The internal environment deals with the management of resources like human resources, physical resources, technology, monetary resources and others that constitute the organization in order to implement or execute a strategy. Internal environment also includes culture and other intangible aspects like teamwork, coordination, efficiency level of employees, employee’s salaries and monitoring costs. The strategy for competition should also be in sync with the internal resources especially the internal environment.

To begin with, heterogeneity of capabilities and resources of firms, which is explained as “enduring and systematic performance differences among relatively close rivals”, provides a foundation of the resource-based view (Song, et al.,2006). The implication of this assumption is that core competence conveys the valuable and unique feature of products to customers. The RBV disagrees with the opinion that the resources are homogeneous; if homogeneity is assumed to be essential to develop a proper strategy, the strategy can be easily copied by competitors, which will ultimately result in the dissipation of above-normal rents. Conversely, the unique and fixed resources on hand will lead to outstanding performance and ultimately turn to be a competitive advantage, under the circumstances that sustainable competitive advantage is achieved in an environment where competition does not exist.

Internal Environment is the review that looks at the company operations, internal guidance as well as mission. Internal environment does consist of the value – chain analysis as well as the research based view tool.

Resources are the source of the firm’s capabilities. Resources are bundled to create organisational capabilities. Some of a firm’s resources are tangible and intangible. Tangible resources are assets that can be seen and quantified. Intangible resources include assets that typically are rooted deeply in the firm’s history and have accumulated over time. Intangible resources are relatively difficult for competitors to analyse and imitate. The four types of tangible resources are financial, organisational, physical and technological. And the three types of intangible resources are human, innovation and reputational (Hanson, D., Hitt, M., Ireland, R. D., & Hoskisson, R. E., 2011, pp. 75-78).

To assure the success of a business over a long period of time the business must be able to conduct regular analysis of their success. They must be able to determine where they are today and have a goal of where they would like to see themselves 5-10 years down the road. In order to conduct a true analysis of the company, one must complete an environmental scan of their organization. Thus scanning for events, trends, issues and expectations that they may be faced with in the future. Furthermore, examining all internal and external environment challenges. Internal environmental challenges may be with employees, shareholders or board of directors or the overall culture of the organization. External environmental

1) Barney, J., (1991). Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage, Journal of Management, vol. 17 (1991), no. 1, pp. 99–120.

The internal environment consists of the inherent competencies of the firm and the structure of its internal systems and processes. It is imperative for the organization to conduct an internal analysis