COMM 4351 Study Guide - Materials Management
Document Summary
Competitive advantage: when a company"s profitability is greater than the average profitability of all companies in its industry. Sustained competitive advantage: when the company is able to maintain above-average profitability over a number of years (ex. Distinctive competencies: firm-specific strengths that allow a company to differentiate its products and/or achieve substantially lower costs to achieve a competitive advantage. Verizon has a distinctive competence in customer care, which created value for customers, helps lower churn rates, and ultimately translates into higher costs: resources. Tangible resources: physical entities, such as land, buildings, equipment, inventory, and money. Intangible resources: nonphysical entities such as brand names, company reputation, experiential knowledge, and intellectual property, including patents, copyrights, and trademarks. Resources are valuable when they enable a company to create strong demand for its products/services, or to lower its costs. Valuable resources are more likely to lead to competitive advantage if they are rare (barriers to imitation: capabilities.
