Search results for "Competitive Advantage"
showing 10 items of 169 documents
The role of internal resources in the competitive positioning of Sicilian wine cooperatives
2019
The paper is an original article that uses accounting frameworks to determine what creates a competitive advantage in a cooperative business model. In particular, it investigates the influence of tangible, intangible and financial resources on the business performance of cooperatives operating in the Sicilian wine industry, with the RBV of the firms as a theoretical background. Using a linear regression model, our results show that tangible and financial resources are a source of a sustained competitive advantage. This study fills the gap existing in the strategic management literature related to the role of resources, tangible and intangible, in the cooperative system, providing both theor…
A Neural Network Meta-Model and its Application for Manufacturing
2015
International audience; Manufacturing generates a vast amount of data both from operations and simulation. Extracting appropriate information from this data can provide insights to increase a manufacturer's competitive advantage through improved sustainability, productivity, and flexibility of their operations. Manufacturers, as well as other industries, have successfully applied a promising statistical learning technique, called neural networks (NNs), to extract meaningful information from large data sets, so called big data. However, the application of NN to manufacturing problems remains limited because it involves the specialized skills of a data scientist. This paper introduces an appr…
The importance of social value in agroecological farms: adjusting the common good balance sheet to improve their sustainable management
2021
Organic farming offers the producers the possibility of focusing on their business while obtaining a competitive advantage. Nevertheless, this is centered in specific activities of the production process, thus only creating environmental value. Therefore, it is not an approach based on sustainability. As a consequence of this, it becomes necessary to enlarge this approach toward people (social value) and profitability (economic value). The objective of this work is to describe a tool based on the Economy for the Common Good model applied to the agroecological sector. We propose to adapt the Common Good Matrix to the characteristics of agroecological farms to offer a useful tool to manage an…
Outlining the impact of intellectual capital accumulation and depletion processes on the performance of an insurance firm: a dynamic resource-based p…
2014
This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework on how Intellectual Capital (IC) accumulation and depletion processes are dynamically interrelated with firm performance. Such a framework makes explicit the relationships between policy levers, strategic resources, drivers, end-results and performance indicators through a Dynamic Resource-based perspective. Such an approach matches the Resource based perspective and the System Dynamics (SD) methodology. This paper argues that in order to explain a firm superior performance, it is not sufficient to look at the endowment of strategic resources in a given moment of time; it is instead required to investigate the dynamics of company strategic r…
INNOVATION AS A KEY FACTOR IN THE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
2013
There is international scientific consensus that economic progress will be driven by innovation, namely the invention and application of new technologies. Research and Development (R&D) is one category of spending that develops and drives these new technologies. From the perspective of competiveness, private sector firms are prone to focus their R&D on “applied” projects and many government-sponsored technological advances have been instrumental in driving economic growth and rising living standards. According to the published literature, it is expected that countries engaging in R&D activities have a comparative advantage in export of products, and countries with the “largest” R&D expendit…
The Influence of Country-of-Origin on Human Resource Strategy of Multinational Companies in Developing Countries
2009
Human resources can be one of the company's sources of competitive advantage if it is managed effectively and efficiently. Taking this into considerations, MNCs are straggling in designing the human resource strategy that helps them to gain competitive advantage in host countries. In a globalized world however, multinational companies (MNCs) are in the complex pressure of finding appropriate balance between global, home country and local practices especially in the area of human resource management due to the fact that cultural contexts differ significantly among nations. According to theories of ethnocentricity, MNCs tend to transplant the dominant business strategic practices of the count…
Significance of Supplier Selection Criteria Evolvement in IT Outsourcing to Emerging Economies - Lessons from a Global IT Outsourcing Project
2015
In line with the increasing significance of the acceleration of information technology (IT) advancement and also of harnessing the vigor of emerging economies, IT outsourcing to emerging economies has become global concerns. This enables global companies to enjoy a critical competitive edge by choosing the best option in outsourcing strategy and supplier selection. Consequently, supplier selection criteria have become critical issues for both suppliers and customers. This paper attempts to provide insightful suggestions to these issues. An empirical analysis was conducted taking supplier selection criteria evolvement in global IT outsourcing project focusing on action research in a multinat…
Outsourcing information systems: A strategic partnership with risks
1993
Abstract As information processing and telecommunications technology increase in sophistication and complexity, organizations are finding it more difficult to manage their information systems (IS) for business success. Growing numbers are now sharing these responsibilities and risks with outsourcing vendors. American Standard, Eastman Kodak, General Dynamics, Metropolitan Life, and Young & Rubicam are prominent companies which have outsourced some or all of their IS activities. They are looking to gain competitive advantages by cutting costs and focusing internal resources on core activities. However, compromises in management control and data security, the potential of hidden costs, and th…
Benefits of Software Renting in Cloud Business
2012
In the new era of computing, software can be sold and delivered as a cloud service, and software renting has become a strategic tool to compete in the market. In this multi-case study, software renting was found to help the case firms to (i) differentiate themselves from competitors; (ii) increase their competitive advantage by making the software available for a larger customer group, and (iii) decrease the price of software by using centralized software delivery and maintenance. peerReviewed
INFORMATION CHANNELS INFLUENCING THE HOUSEHOLDS’ DECISION OF HOME LOAN PROVIDERS
2012
With rapid growing of competitiveness in the Latvian commercial banking, and resemblance of services offered by banks, it has become significantly important that banks detect the information sources influencing the customer choice of banks of financial products. The relevant literature indicates that a great deal of research effort has been expended to investigate bank selection criteria for broad categories of customers. One promising segment, which, arguably, has not been given enough attention, is the households group. Home loans products make the markets that had the huge increase before crisis. The great fall of interest rates along with the offering of new, more flexible and attractiv…