Although the existing literature discusses strategies available to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), they do not address the plight faced by SMEs, namely resource limitations in their ...strategy formulation. Drawing on deductive logic, this paper identifies and conceptualizes three marketing strategies which are generic to SMEs and which specifically take into consideration the competitive reactions of bigger incumbent firms. These three generic marketing strategies are substitution, free riding and strategic deterrence. Successful substitution calls for the SME to offer differentiated yet substitutable products to that of an incumbent so as to force accommodation by the latter. Free riding allows the SME to enter a served market segment without having to incur market development expenses. Finally, strategic deterrence aims to deter a bigger incumbent firm from embarking on aggressive counteractions against the SME. This can be achieved by the formation of strategic alliances and/or incurring sunk costs in order to signal the SME's commitments to stay in the market credibly. Examples from Asian SMEs are given to illustrate the three generic strategies.
This article discusses the validity of three famous approaches of strategic management – Porter’s Generic Strategies, the Outpacing Concept and Blue Ocean Strategies – by using cases from two ...industries: airlines and grocery retail. The discussion shows that all three concepts make important contributions to the explanation of the success and failure of existing strategies, but none of the concepts fully describes the reality. While generic and Blue Ocean strategies neglect dynamics, the outpacing approach is still too much imprisoned by the categories of Porter. As a conclusion, first ideas towards a more dynamic theory of market evolution are drawn which include aspects of Blue Ocean and Outpacing and recall a more philosophical approach.
Multivariate analyses of 54 firms in the high-growth electronics industry in Korea showed that top management perceived multiple environments within the industry. The characteristics of the four ...strategic groups identified in this study were generally consistent with those of the generic strategies identified by Porter and by Miller, and the four environmental settings that emerged were classified primarily on the basis of two dimensions, technical dynamism and bargaining power. High-performing cost leaders and high-performing differentiators were found in different environments. Also, firms without a clearcut generic strategy performed less well than those using generic strategies.
The study examined the use of Porter's (1980) generic strategies of overall cost leadership and differentiation in their pure and hybrid forms, and their effect on performance in the context-specific ...setting of a developing country, viz. India. Results indicated that organizations that followed a combination of cost leadership and differentiation strategies ("hybrids"), in general, had the best performance of all groups on a variety of performance measures.
This paper uses a new (PIMS) research data base to identify the mobility barriers-the factors associated with sustained intraindustry profit differentials-in a cross-section of industries. The ...exercise suggests that differentiation-related factors play more of a role in generating intraindustry profit differentials than do cost-related ones. It also indicates that differentiation-related advantages tend to be absorbed into fatter margins and (in some instances) larger maket shares, while cost-related advantages are taken primarily in the form of increases in market share.
STRATEGIES FOR ACHIEVING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE Alexandru, NEDELEA; ZEKIRI, Jusuf
The Annals of the "Stefan cel Mare" University of Suceava. Fascicle of The Faculty of Economics and Public Administration,
2011, Volume:
11, Issue:
2
Journal Article
This paper is organized in three parts. A brief overview of the importance of strategies within companies, as well as literature review is presented along with traditional approaches on strategies ...for achieving competitive advantage, and new approaches for gaining a competitive advantage. The main objective of the paper is to outline and discuss the relevant issues and challenges from a theoretical viewpoint related with the possible strategy formulation of companies in order to achieve a competitive advantage in a market. Therefore, the primary objectives of this study consist on the theoretical frames of strategies for achieving the competitive advantage, and considering the ways of implementing them in companies worldwide. This paper concentrates on secondary sources of research regarding the approaches on strategies for achieving competitive advantage. According to the previous literature, scholars present some traditional approaches for gaining a competitive advantage. The new approaches are also presented that inevitably will play a crucial role in the future while formulating strategies for gaining a competitive advantage. Therefore, in order to understand the determinants for strategy setting, secondary information will be collected, and the data will be compared and analyzed. Finally, the research propositions will be submitted.
This article identifies the strategic types in the hospital industry based on the hospital's use of Porter's generic strategies in their pure and hybrid forms. The article also examines differences ...in performance of hospitals across strategic types. Results indicate that hospitals that follow a focussed cost leadership strategy, in general, have superior performance on a variety of performance measures, while hospitals that use a combination of cost leadership and differentiation perform the poorest. Implications of findings for hospital administrators are also discussed.
In this paper, specific personnel policies and their relationship to generic strategies are examined in the light of the concept of human resource management (HRM). Since data from twelve Dutch and ...eight British companies in the food&drink and chemical industries reveal that the implementation of HRM components is subject to a societal effect-and thus HRM has a different meaning in Dutch companies than in their British counterparts-a typology of HRM at a more strategic level is proposed to facilitate the analysis of the relationship between HRM and generic strategies. Although in the majority of cases the HRM policy supports the generic strategy pursued, many problems and paradoxes remain in the analysis of an HRM-strategy fit.
The article tries to reveal the inadequacies of Porter s strategic thought from the
methodological and epistemological point of view. It shows that the praxiological promises
of his thought are ...impossible to realize given its dubious and impossible to operationalize.
The article lacks of fundamental issues (as pointed out by the Resource Based Theorists)
that the organization needs to assess and harness in order to be successful in its attempt to
reach and keep its competitive advantage, making it not easily imitable.
El artículo busca demostrar las inconsistencias del pensamiento estratégico de Porter desde
el punto de vista metodológico y epistemológico. De igual manera, muestra que las
propuestas praxológicas de Porter son imposibles de operacionalizar y normativizar. Además,
la teoría carece de factores fundamentales que permitan a las organizaciones perdurar
y ser exitosas en el tiempo teniendo ventaja defendible y difícilmente imitable.
PDF
