Minimum of 250 words in the body Minimum of 2 sources from the literature in addition to course texts Content must include:  Summary of the author’s Main Thread – no less than 125 words  W

Minimum of 250 words in the body Minimum of 2 sources from the literature in addition to course texts

Content must include:

 Summary of the author’s Main Thread – no less than 125 words  What you agreed with, did not agree with and why – no less than 125 words

Organizations must look to gain advantages through the establishment of competitive strategies. Rumelt (2011) identified the establishment of a competitive strategy as the ability to achieve sustainability. This means competitors are unable to duplicate the products or services being offered by an organization. The purpose of this post is to analyze the process of determining a competitive strategy, identify the scopes of a strategy, and discuss the decision-making models to implement this strategy. The goal of this discussion post is to identify the factors that go into determining an organization’s competitive strategy. The second purpose is to identify an organization's competitive scope with an emphasis on the geographic and distribution scopes. Finally, the discussion post will identify the best decision-making models to properly implement this competitive strategy. The discussion post closes with a summary of assertions made by this researcher and also a recap of the main points discussed.

Process: Deciding on a Competitive Approach

It is not enough for an organization to implement a generic strategy. For organizational success, strategic advantages need to be leveraged in order for an organization to establish competitiveness (Rumelt, 2011). In determining a competitive approach, the organization needs to develop a strategy that allows for leveraging competitiveness in the market (Gamble, Peteraf, & Thompson, 2019). Developing this competitive strategy comes down to whether a company's target is broad or narrow and also whether the company is pursuing this competitive advantage due to lowering costs (Gamble et al., 2019). These two factors allow an organization to gain a competitive advantage, which hopefully will lead to the business sustainability that is desired (Rumelt, 2011).

After an analysis has been run on the two factors that determine a company's strategy, the next step is to look at the five competitive strategy options. A low-cost provider is trying to implement a lower cost than rival competitors (Gamble et al., 2019). In today's market, offering lower cost can be enough to draw loyal consumers away from businesses in which frequency has already been established (Ginevičius, Krivka, & Šimkūnaitė, 2010). The next option is developing a broad differentiation strategy, which seeks to differentiate the organization's product or service from competitors by appealing to a more broad spectrum (Gamble et al., 2019). Rumelt (2011) determined this option was a necessity, because eventually, competitors will identify how to duplicate the product or service. By appealing to such a broad spectrum of buyers, the rivals will be unable to steal consumers. The third competitive option is a focused low-cost strategy. This narrows the buyer segment by having a lower cost than competitors (Gamble et al., 2019). Most successful businesses have niche programs that treat members to lower prices, which motivates other non-members to join this niche program (Ginevicius et al., 2010). The fourth option is a focused differentiation strategy, and this concentrates on outcompeting rivals by offering customized parts that meet the desires of the niche members (Gamble et al., 2019). Appealing to consumer desires is perhaps the most effective strategy when leveraging internal resources (Ginevicius et al., 2010). Finally, the organization can use the best cost provider strategy. This gives customers more value by satisfying buyer expectations on the many facets of service attributes while beating price expectations (Gamble et al., 2019). This strategy option can deepen the advantages, broaden the extent of these advantages, create higher demand, and strengthen the competitive advantage by creating value for the customer (Rumelt, 2011). The next step in the development of a competitive business process is determining the scope of the plan, and this should encompass geographic locations and the distribution scope.

Strategic Thinking: Deciding on a Competitive Scope

Determining the competitive scope can help the organization go on the offensive and be aggressive in the market (Gamble et al., 2019). This aggressive approach will allow the organization to develop a better position in the market (Rumelt, 2011). As with chess, a business must also look to gain a positional advantage through leveraging resources and determining its competitive scope (Rumelt, 2011). A company's scope is the utilization of activities to determine the extent of its markets reach (Gamble et al., 2019). Horizontal Scope: Geographic

Gamble et al. (2019) identified two facets of an organization's scope, and these are horizontal scopes and vertical scopes. The horizontal scope is the range the organization will service segments with its products located within its focal market (Gamble et al., 2019). The goal of an organization is to expand its horizontal scope by achieving new business development or acquiring other companies in a merger (Gamble et al., 2019). An organization's horizontal scope encompasses the business's geographic scope. Business leaders must strive to gain a competitive advantage with the geographic scope, because within the scope are organizations trying to steal away the already-established niche customers (Guth, 2009). Gamble et al. (2019) highlighted five ways to achieve competitiveness in the geographic scope. The first is to expand the product or service in two or more categories, and this appeals to a broader spectrum of consumers (Gamble et al., 2019). To do this organizational leader must have the ability to anticipate unpredictable aspects of consumer behavior and turn this into an advantage (Rumelt, 2011). Businesses look to expand into international markets to gain access to new customers, achieve lower costs, gain access to low-cost inputs of production, further exploit its core competencies, and to gain access to the resources and capabilities located in the foreign market (Gamble et al., 2019). Gamble et al. (2019) asserted five models for entry into foreign markets. These are to maintain a one country production base, license foreign firms, employ franchising strategies, establish subsidiaries in foreign markets, and rely on strategic alliances (Gamble et al., 2019). To properly expand into larger geographic scopes, the organization needs to implement a global strategy, which looks to pursue a competitive advantage by offering similar products worldwide and utilizing its same distribution channel (Gamble et al., 2019). Next, the organization must create a more cost-efficient operation (Gamble et al., 2019). Cost efficient operations are an essential strategy for organizational success. Third, the company must expand its geographic coverage (Gamble et al., 2019). The organization can acquire new businesses by offering new products or services that appeal to wider ranges of consumers (Guth, 2009). The fourth and fifth way to expand the geographic scope is to implement new technologies that offer more market opportunities (Gamble et al., 2019). A trend in the global market is the utilization of efficient technologies that provide a more competitive advantage for an organization (Guth, 2009). In addition to managing the geographic scope, an organization must determine its vertical scope.Vertical Scope: Distribution

The vertical scope of the organization encompasses internal activities, such as the value chain system, raw material production, and service activities (Gamble et al, 2019). A major focus of the vertical scope is determining the distribution channels of the product or service. To properly establish successful distribution, the organization needs to look to expand into multi-business segments (Gamble et al., 2019). There are four facets that come into play when determining this corporate strategy. The organization must pick new industries to enter, pursue opportunities to leverage across barriers, establish investment priorities, and implement actions to boost the performance of the organization (Gamble et al., 2019). These considerations allow the organization to develop a successful competitive strategy that will expand its distribution into multiple markets. To expand the distribution method successfully, competitive forces need to be established. The economic scope needs to be determined, and if opportunities for acquisition are available they need to be aggressively pursued (Gamble et al., 2019). These factors are the determinants in whether an organization should decide to expand its distribution method into other markets. Another factor to determine in global distribution, is deciding if it makes economic sense for the supplier (Guth, 2009). The organization does not want to lose money when establishing its new market strategy, so the economic scope must be established before entrance into the international markets (Gamble et al., 2019). The organization also must look to utilize decision-making models to aid the process of strategy execution into the international markets.

Decision Models: Based off of Krogerus and Tschappeler (2017)

Organizations must look to establish strong international strategies and not create a jumble of ideas that are labeled as strategies (Rumelt, 2011). In this case the focus is on international scopes, and to properly integrate into these scopes, decision-making models need to be chosen. This section will use information from Krogerus and Tschappeler (2017) to identify the best decision-making models to implement these strategic plans.The Gap in the Market Model

The first model that would truly aid the decision-making process would be the gap in the market model. The reason this decision-making model is being chosen is because every business looks to recognize a gap in the market and fill it (Krogerus & Tschappeler, 2017). This decision-making model would greatly aid the strategic plan of entering international markets, because this model focuses around identifying gaps in markets that need to be filled (Krogerus & Tschappeler, 2017). This model looks to identify niches in the market that have been overlooked and also help to determine if the organization has the competitive ability to fill these gaps (Krogerus & Tschappeler, 2017). SWOT Analysis

A commonality in choosing a decision-making model is the common implementation of a SWOT analysis. The reason a SWOT analysis is predominantly chosen is it is an indicator of a business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (Krogerus & Tschappeler, 2017). This allows the organization to see if it properly has the strength to fill the gaps in the market that were identified by the gap in the market model. This will aid the decision-making process because an organization does not have to waste time and resources seeing whether it has the ability to fill this gap or not. A SWOT analysis would also help identify opportunities and threats in the external market (Krogerus & Tschappeler, 2017). Opportunities could lead to better acquisition strategies, which Gamble et al. (2019), identified business acquisition as a necessity for expanding an organization's geographic scope. The SWOT analysis is a very effective decision-making model that will aid the execution of the strategy.

Summary

Organizational success comes from the ability to leverage resources through the implementation of a competitive strategy (Rumelt, 2011). An organization must determine its competitive strategy and then look to see its scope of competitiveness as well. Once the strategy has been determined and the scope has been identified the organization can look to implement a decision-making model to assist with the successful execution of the strategy. The first section of the discussion post identified factors that must be considered when determining a competitive approach. Gamble et al. (2019) determined that an organization must focus on two options when implementing a strategy, and these are broadening the company's approach and lowering costs. These two options lead to a five strategy execution plan that helps an organization achieve success. Once the competitive strategy is determined the organization must look to identify its scope, which should focus around horizontal and vertical scopes. The horizontal scope encompasses the geographic scope. This researcher asserted that successful integration into international markets is done through successfully merging other businesses. This assertion is supported by Guth (2009) and Gamble et al. (2019). An organization's vertical scopes consists of factors such as the distribution outlets. Gamble et al. (2019) asserted the main determinants when deciding if an organization should enter a market is if it makes economic sense. The organization does not want to enter any market if it is going to lose money during the acquisition phases and development phases. The third portion of the discussion post focuses on the decision-making models to properly execute the strategies of gaining entrance into international markets. This researcher asserted the two most effective decision-making models in this case are the gap in the market model, and the SWOT analysis model. These assertions are supported by Krogerus and Tschappeler (2017). This discussion post has met its goal by thoroughly examining the process of developing a competitive strategy, strategic thinking towards the identification of a competitive scope, and choosing the decision-making models needed execute these strategic plans.

Annotated Bibliography

Ginevičius, R., Krivka, A., & Šimkūnaitė, J. (2010). The model of forming competitive strategy of an enterprise under the conditions of oligopolic market. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 11(3), 367-395. doi:10.3846/jbem.2010.18This article centralized around gaining a competitive advantage in an oligopolic market. The authors described an oligopolic market as being dominated by a small number of large sellers. This keeps the competition minimal, but organizations have to compete with other large sellers to produce a competitive advantage. The authors asserted that in order to establish competitiveness in this market a competitive strategy has to be formed. The first step in establishing this competitiveness is identifying resources that can be leveraged. This supports assertions by Rumelt (2011) that a competitive strategy is developed through leveraging resources. The next step is to determine long-term and short-term goals. These goals can focus around financial improvement and better market positioning. The authors also emphasized the importance of identifying the organization's market opportunities as well as identifying potential threats to the company. The researchers felt that a SWOT analysis would be the best method in determining these factors. Another assertion by the authors, was the emphasis on successful strategic integration. This could mean implementing newer technologies or integrating new employees through business acquisitions. If all of these facets of developing a competitive strategy are accomplished these researchers felt a successful competitive strategy can be established. This competitive strategy will benefit the organization financially by achieving better market success.This article was published in the Journal of Business Economics and Management. According to the about section, this journal has been publishing articles since 2003. The emphasis has been on publishing articles that have a centralized focus of strategic management in business. This journal is published by Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, which follows the compliances of the Best Practices in Scholarly Publishing. In order to get an article published it must meet the criteria of being peer-reviewed, have superior content strength, have centralized focus of strategic management, and meet the publisher’s other minimum quality criteria. These authors have each contributed to this journal a minimum of two times along with each of them publishing at least one article in the Journal of Strategic Management. These prestigious contributions equal out to high-quality authors.This article provided the needed quality and support to back up the assertions on identifying a competitive strategy made by Rumelt (2011) and Gamble et al. (2019). This also added more detail into the advantages of lowering cost and adding additional ways to identify a competitive strategy. This article provided the support to back the assertions on enhancing a position in the market by utilizing a competitive strategy made by this researcher. The inclusion of this article allowed for more validity on identifying the competitive strategy, and the scholarly support needed provided to backup assertions made by this researcher and other authors.

Guth, W. D. (2009). Developing new avenues for growth: Challenges presented by five trends in the global environment. Journal of International Management, 15(3), 251-261. doi:10.1016/j.intman.2008.12.003This article discussed the five trends in the global environment that an organization must establish growth in to develop organizational success. The author identified the five trends in the global environment as shifts in economic activity, the increasing demand for goods or services, the need for technological innovation, increasing global labor markets, and reducing costs to implement newer technologies. Organizational leaders need to try and find routes to establish success in each of these trends. This supports assertions made by Gamble et al. (2019) on the necessities of determining the economic scope before entering a new market. The article focused around the challenges an organization faces when trying to develop growth in these areas. The challenges identified in the article were available capital, economic sense, and consumer demand. Resources need to be properly allocated in order to maximize business success. The article concludes with highlighting the benefits of achieving growth in these five environmental trends. The advantages were market expansion, more customer acquisition, better retention, and increased productivity due to innovative technologies.This article was published in the International Journal of Management. This is a peer-reviewed article that focuses around strategy development, business management, and global management. This journal is published by Elsevier and was established in 1995. This journal goes above and beyond others by not only using empirical research but also theoretical research. This cutting-edge methodology allows for more sufficient articles that encompass more areas. This helps practitioners get a wider understanding of the subject matter thanks to the volume published in the journal's articles. This author has contributed to the Journal of International Management a total of three times and also contributed to the Journal of Strategic Management twice. This plethora of research, meeting the standards of two different journals, equivocates to a high-quality author.This article fits in the discussion post for a multitude of reasons. The first reason is this article offers the scholarly support needed to back-up the assertions by Gamble et al. (2019) on the current global trends that need to be developed in order to have global success. Next, this article supports assertions made by this researcher and Rumelt (2011) on the importance of broadening the spectrum of a scope to generate a larger target audience. By appealing to a larger customer base, the opportunity to expand into new markets becomes available. Finally, this article added the additional scholarly support needed to generate a thoroughly researched discussion post. The combination of the points made by this author with points made by Rumelt (2011) and Gamble et al. (2019) created a thorough answer for how to decide on a competitive scope.

References

Gamble, J., Peteraf, M., & Thompson, A. (2019). Essentials of strategic management, (6th edition). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education

Krogerus, M., & Tschappeler, R. (2017). The decision book: 50 models for strategic thinking. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Rumelt, R. (2011). Good strategy/ Bad Strategy: The difference and why it matters., New York, NY: Crown Business