Pick a leading company. Now use the Resource-Based-View to analyze that company. How does this analysis differ from Porter's Five Competitive Forces model?
In this essay, I will set the scene for Starbucks Corporation, henceforth referred to as Starbucks and mention briefly its origins and some up to date financial information. I will apply the Resource-Based-View (RBV) approach to Starbucks, to identify its core competencies and strengths which have enabled it to grow. I shall compare and contrast the RBV with Porter's Five-Forces (FF) model, finally drawing conclusions to what has helped Starbucks the most to remain ahead of the field in the coffee bar industry, and reap considerable profits.
I have chosen Starbucks as a leading company because it has demonstrated a phenomenal rate of growth over the last decade. Since starting out in 1971, there are now more than 8000 stores in over 30 countries (www.starbucks.com). The company's success could be credited to a solid business strategy, which will be analyzed subsequently using RBV.
RBV is a relatively recent approach to competitive advantage, which focuses on the firm's specialized traits. There has been a lot of literature about RBV, and many ambiguities and difference of terminology, which Peteraf tried to reconcile with his 1993 article on "The cornerstones of competitive advantage: a resource-based view". I will use her interpretation of RBV, because it covers most of the significant research and standardizes authors' works and ideas.
Porter's (1979) FF model, on the other hand, is arguably a central concept to industry structure analysis. This is also the key difference regarding RBV; that FF applies to the industry, and not the firm itself. Porter (1979) implies that to render the highes ...