Business Strategy: Theoretical and Contemporary Approaches

Figure 3: Duoploy pay-off matrix

In real world, duopoly analyses could be applied to several-firm oligopoly by using complex maths but the result is the same. In the analyses it assumed as a one-off game. In real life, firms learn from their experiences and continue to operate in the industry. In repeated games, results can change. The best result is that the threat of cheating may force the firms to cooperate. The result will then be maximum profits.

Whether legal or illegal, firms sometimes do collude. The life expectancy of such collusion will depend on several factors:

1. The stability of demand: It is easier for firms to collude if demand is stable or rising, because then sales and profits are likely to increase. When demand is falling, then partners quarrel about who should cut production, and the collusion is likely to come to an end.
2. Price elasticity of demand: Collusion is easier when demand is inelastic, because if the firms want to cut output and raise prices, inelastic demand means that quite a large rise in price will only have a small effect on sales.
3. Recession: It leads to a fall in demand, and this is likely to cause disagreements.
4. The ability to control most of the output: The existence of non member firms weakened the collusion power.

3. Non-price Competition

Both monopolistic competition and oligopoly are characterized by non-price competition. One type of non-price competition is when firms try to improve their product, or to introduce new products. The car industry introduces frequent changes on models in order to attract customers.  Another is when firms try to improve the services which they provide. Free insurance or ‘buy now, pay later’ deals shows that firms seek to compete in non-price areas. However, two main non-price competition areas are: advertising and product differentiation.

1. Advertising

One obvious effect is that it increases firms’ costs. Average cost increases at all levels of output. A successful advertising campaign will also affect demand. There will be a shift to the right, meaning the more will be demanded at all prices. Also, a successful advertising campaign makes the consumers believe that the product is special, that is different from its competitors. This means that, the product has fewer competitors, so demand curve becomes more inelastic.  

Advertising can be beneficial if it leads to greater consumer information, but it can be argued that it distorts consumer preferences – they spend more on highly advertised goods which are not necessarily the best, and they pay higher prices. Heavy advertising may also make it difficult for new firms to enter the industry.

2. Product Differentiation

In perfect competition there is no product differentiation – all firms have identical products. In pure monopoly, the firm has a product that is different to any other. In oligopoly and monopolistic competition, firms try to make their product different from those of any competitors. The advantage of a firm is that its demand curve becomes downward sloping, making it a price maker, and, in the short-run at least, enabling it to make monopoly profits. Several strategies that firms can differentiate their products:

1. Horizontal differentiation: This refers to the choice of where to locate the business. It is particularly important in retail and service industries. If the two supermarkets in a particular town are more expensive than those in the next town, it may not pay consumers to travel because of the costs involved.
2. Vertical differentiation: This refers to differentiation on the basis of quality. For example, stereo systems with different qualities made by the same firm. The reason is to differentiate consumers by income.
3. Varying product characteristics: With many products, it is possible to make the product look different from its competitors. Hence the design is important. It is also possible to make the products differ in particular details. All car manufacturers offer a wide range of cars, differentiated not only by color but also by engine size, and quality of accessories.
4. Advertising and sales promotion: Firms hope that consumers substitute the advertising message for their own attempts to obtain information. If advertising makes people believe that a product is different from another, then the firm can benefit.

Product differentiation is a powerful weapon for firms. Brand names can lead to large profits. Today, supermarkets are developing their own-label products, targeting consumers who seek cheaper prices, to compete with brand-names. But as far as the producers make people believe that branded products are different, its demand curve will be inelastic and its price higher than the supermarket equivalent.

4. Price Discriminating and Necessary Conditions

Other than monopolistic competition and oligopoly, there are some markets where a firm has considerable market power. In such cases, this may lead to price discrimination. It occurs when the same product is sold at more than one price. For a firm to be able and willing to engage in price discrimination, the buyers of the firm’s product must fall into classes with considerable differences among classes in the price elasticity of demand for the product, and it must be possible to identify and segregate these classes at moderate cost. Also, buyers must be unable to transfer the product easily from one class to another, since otherwise persons could make money by buying the product from the low-price classes and selling it to the high-price classes. The differences among classes of buyers in the price elasticity of demand may be due to differences among classes in income levels, tastes, or availability of substitutes. For instances: Theatres vary their seat prices according to certain locations. Airlines often charge a lower fare for the same ticket if it is bought well in advance.

Figure 4: Price Discrimination

3. Contemporary Approaches

Business strategy as an academic discipline is relatively new, although economists have been aware of and are discussing the main issues for many years. The recognition of the need for strategic business awareness on a popular basis dates back only to 1950s. First started as emphasizing on financial analysis and management of organizations, it now focuses on different ways of achieving dominance and longevity in the competitive marketplace.

Strategy has been defined by Johnson and Scholes (1999) as follows: Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term: ideally which matches its resources to its changing environment and in particular its markets, customers or clients so as to meet stakeholders’ expectations.

There are debates about whether strategy should be strictly prescribed by the organization’s chief executive, or whether there should be interaction between top-level executives and workforce. Regardless of which one to follow, it is indisputable that the organization and all employees should be aware of the mission, vision and objectives of the organization.

The idea of any mission statement is to motivate the workforce in line with the organization’s vision, or overall goal. Traditionally, the vision of an organization shows where or what a charismatic leader(s) sees the organization achieving in the log-run. The mission statement should be simple, easy to understand, and memorable. It should also provide a balance between what management, owners, and workforce perceive to be important. Objectives are the end results of planned activity. They state what is to be accomplished by when and should be quantified if possible.

Strategy is a continuous process. There is no start and finish for the process of strategy. Instead, once up and running, organizations should be continually analyzing and reviewing their strategies and implementing these, along with any changes. Organizations are aware that, as the environment and their market(s) change, strategies become outdated and require alteration. In the period since mid-1970s, the process of strategy and strategic management has become more emergent. There are three stages of the strategy process: Strategic analysis, strategic choice, strategy implementation.

5. Strategic Analysis

To make a strategic analysis of the organization, all aspects must be investigated. Strategic analysis may be divided into two broad categories: internal and external.

3.  Internal Analysis

Internal analysis is concerned with looking at resources, the systems and processes utilized within the organization. Additionally, it is concerned with the organization’s strategic capability, that is, what it will be able to do in the future. It is important to evaluate the importance of a company’s resources, capabilities, and competencies to ascertain whether they are internal strategic factors- that are strength and weaknesses that will help determine the future of the company. This can be done by comparing (1) the company’s past performance, (2) its key competitors, and (3) the industry as a whole.

Porter proposes that a manufacturing firm’s primary activities usually begin with inbound logistics (raw materials, handling and warehousing), go through an operations process in which product is manufactured, and continue on to outbound logistics (warehousing and distribution), to marketing and sales, and finally to service (installation, repair, and sale of parts). Several support activities such as procurement, R&D, HR management, and firm infrastructure ensure that primary value chain activities operate efficiently and effectively. The systematic examination of individual value activities can lead to a better understanding of a corporation’s strength and weaknesses. According to Porter, differences among value chains are key source of competitive advantage. In addition to usual business functions of marketing, finance, R&D, operations, HR, and IT, structure and corporate culture are also key parts of business corporation’s value chain.  

The organizational culture and management style are also important. Corporate culture shapes the behavior of people in a corporation, thus affecting corporate performance. A strong culture should not only promote survival, but it should also create the basis for a superior competitive position by increasing motivation and facilitating coordination and control. A change in mission, objectives, strategies, or policies is not likely to be successful if it is in opposition to the accepted culture of a firm. It is also important when considering an acquisition. The merging of two dissimilar cultures, if not handled wisely, can create some serious internal conflicts.

There are three basic organizational structures. Simple structure has no functional or product categories and is appropriate for a small company with one or two product lines. Employees tend to be generalists. Functional structure is appropriate for medium-sized firms with several product lines in one industry. Employees tend to be specialists. Divisional structure is appropriate for a large corporation with many product lines in several related industries. Strategic Business Units (SBUs) are a modification of the divisional structure. The idea is to decentralize on the basis of strategic elements rather than on the basis of size, product characteristics, and to create horizontal linkages among units previously kept separately.

4. External Analysis

External analysis means analysis of the environment in which the organization is operating. There are many variables within a corporation’s natural, societal, and task environments. Natural environment includes physical resources, wildlife, and climate that are inherent part of existence on Earth. The societal environment is mankind’s social system that includes general forces that can influence the organization’s long-run decisions. These factors affect multiple industries and are economic forces, technological forces, political-legal forces, and sociocultural forces. The task environment includes those groups that directly affect a corporation and in turn, are affected by it: Governments, local communities, suppliers, competitors, customers, creditors, employees, interest groups. A corporation’s task environment is the industry within which it operates. Some important variables in societal environment:

Economic: GDP trends, interest rates, money supply, inflation rates, unemployment levels, wage/ price controls, energy alternatives, energy availability and cost, disposable and discretionary income, currency markets, global financial systems

Technological: Total government and industry spending for R&D, focus of technological efforts, patent protection, new products, internet availability, telecommunication infrastructure

Political-legal: Antitrust regulations, environmental protection laws, immigration laws, tax laws, foreign trade regulations, stability of government, attitudes towards foreign companies

Sociocultural: Lifestyle changes, career expectations, consumer activism, growth rate of population, age distribution of population, life expectancies, birthrates, pension plans, level of education, living wage, health care

The origin of competitive advantage lies in the ability to identify and respond to environmental change well in advance of competition. No firm can successfully monitor all external factors. Choices must be made regarding which factors are important and which are not. Personal values and functional experiences of managers as well as current strategies are likely to bias both their perceptions and interpretations. This willingness to reject unfamiliar as well as negative information is called strategic myopia.

Porter contends that a corporation is most concerned with the intensity of competition within its industry. The level of intensity is determined by basic competitive forces. In carefully scanning its industry, a corporation must assess the importance to its success of each of five forces: threat of new entrance, rivalry among existing firms, threat of substitute products or services, bargaining power of buyer, bargaining power of suppliers.

The stronger each of these forces, the more limited companies are in their ability to raise prices and earn greater profits. In the short-run, these forces act as constraints on a company’s activities. In the long-run, however, through its choice of strategy, it may be possible to change the strength of one or more of the forces to the company’s advantage.

Figure 5: Porter’s five forces analysis

5. SWOT Analysis

This external analysis aims to study the attractiveness of the industry in which each strategic business unit is participating and places the consultant as an external observer. An internal analysis is then undertaken, which includes the identification of the weaknesses and strengths of every area of the company. Combining the results of the external and internal analysis and taking into account the scale of values of the owner, the strategic problems are identified. They are the problems which are critical to the success of the company. (Quezada, 1999)

SWOT is an acronym used to describe the particular Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats that are strategic factors for a specific company. After performing the internal and external analysis, the key strengths and weaknesses of the organization can be summarized, as can the opportunities and threats facing the organization. SWOT analysis should not only result in the identification of a corporation’s distinctive competencies but also in the identification of opportunities that the firm is not currently able to take advantage of due to a lack of appropriate resources. An opportunity but itself has no real value unless a company has the capacity to take advantage of that opportunity.

6. Strategies in Levels

6. Corporate Level Strategies

Corporate strategy is primarily about the choice of direction for a firm as a whole and the management of its business or product portfolio. It deals with three key issues facing the corporation as a whole:

1. Directional Strategy: The firm’s overall orientation toward growth, stability, and retrenchment.
2. Portfolio Analysis: The industries or markets in which the firm competes through its products and business units.
3. Parenting Strategy: The manner in which management coordinates activities and transfers resources and cultivates capabilities among product lines and business units.

1. Directional Strategy

A corporation’s directional strategy is composed of three general orientations:

• Growth strategies expand the company’s activities.
• Stability strategies make no change to the company’s current activities.
• Retrenchment strategies reduce the company’s level of activities.

1. Growth Strategies

The two basic growth strategies are concentration on the current product line(s) in one industry and diversification into other product lines in other industries.

        The two basic concentration strategies are vertical and horizontal growth. Vertical growth can be achieved by taking over a function previously provided by a supplier (backward integration) or a distributor (forward integration). The company, in effect, grows by making its own supplies and/or distributing its own products. This may be done in order to reduce costs, gain control over a scarce resource, guarantee quality of a key input, or obtain access to potential customers.    

        Horizontal growth can be achieved by expanding its operations into other geographic locations and/or by increasing the range of products and services offered to current markets. Horizontal growth can be achieved through internal development or externally through acquisitions and strategic alliances with other firms in the same industry. Horizontal growth is increasingly being achieved in today’s world through international expansion.

        A corporation can select from several strategic options the most appropriate method for entering a foreign market or establishing manufacturing facilities in another country.

• Exporting: A good way to minimize risk and experiment with a specific product is exporting, shipping goods produced in the company’s home country to other countries for marketing. The company could choose to handle all critical functions itself, or it could contract these functions to an expert management company.
• Licensing: Under licensing agreement, the licensing firm grants rights to another firm in the host country to produce and/or sell a product. The licensee pays compensation to the licensing firm in return for technical expertise. This is especially useful if the brand name or trademark is well known but the company does not have sufficient funds to finance its entering the country directly.
• Franchising: Under this agreement, the franchiser grants rights to another company to open a retail store using the franchiser’s name and operating system. In exchange, the franchisee pays the firm a percentage of its sales as a royalty.
• Joint Ventures: Forming a joint venture between a foreign corporation and domestic company is the most popular strategy used to enter a new country. They often form this to combine the resources and expertise needed to develop new products or technologies.
• Acquisition: Purchasing another company already operating in that area. Synergistic benefits can result if the company acquires a firm with strong complementary product lines and a good distribution network.
• Green-field Development: Building its own manufacturing plant and distribution system. This is usually far more complicated and expensive operation than acquisition.

        According to strategist Richard Rumelt, companies begin thinking about diversification when their growth has plateaued and opportunities in the original business have been depleted. This occurs when an industry consolidates, becomes mature, and most of the surviving firms have reached the limits of growth using concentration strategies. There are two types of diversification, namely related and unrelated diversification. Related diversification means that we remain in a market or industry with which we are familiar. For example, a soup manufacturer diversifies into cake manufacture (i.e. the food industry). Unrelated diversification is where we have no previous industry or market experience. For example a soup manufacturer invests in the rail business.

        The Ansoff Product-Market Growth Matrix is a tool created by  and first published in his article "Strategies for Diversification" in the Harvard Business Review (1957). The matrix allows managers to consider ways to grow the business via existing and/or new products, in existing and/or new markets – there are four possible product/market combinations.

Figure 6: Product/Market Matrix

2. Stability Strategies

Stability Strategies can be very useful in short run, but they can be dangerous if followed for too long. Three common strategies:

• Pause/proceed-with-caution strategy is a timeout- an opportunity to rest before continuing a growth or retrenchment strategy. A temporary strategy to be used until the particular environmental situation changes.
• No-change strategy is a decision to do nothing new- a choice to continue current operations for the foreseeable future.
• Profit strategy is a decision to do nothing new in a worsening situation but instead to act as though the company’s problems are only temporary. It is an attempt to artificially support profits when a company’s sales are declining.

3. Retrenchment Strategies

A company may pursue retrenchment strategies when it has a weak competitive position in some or all of its product lines resulting in poor performance- sales are down and profits are becoming losses. Several strategies can be imposed in an attempt to eliminate weaknesses:

• Turnaround strategy: It emphasizes the improvement of operational efficiency and is probably most appropriate when a corporation’s problems are pervasive but not yet critical.
• Captive company strategy: It involves giving up independence in exchange for security.
• Sell-out/Divestment strategies: A corporation can be completely sold out or chosen divisions can be sold off- divestment.
• Bankruptcy/Liquidation strategies: Bankruptcy involves giving up management of the firm to the courts in return for some settlement of the firm’s obligations. Liquidation is the termination of the firm.

2. Portfolio Analysis  

In portfolio analysis, top management views its product lines and business units as a series of investments from which it expects a profitable return. The most popular technique is the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix. The organization’s portfolio of products or services is subjected to a detailed analysis according to two criteria: market share and growth of the market.

Figure 7: Boston Consulting Group Matrix

• The star: Products or services, or business units have high market share in a fast growing market.
• The cash cow: Products or services, or business units have high market share in a slow growing and mature market. They are often the best products that bringing in more money.
• The question mark (or problem child): Products or services have the potential to become stars. They need to have some care and attention devoted to them, for there is a danger that unless market share can be realized the market growth rates eventually decline and the product or service will be transformed into a dog.
• The dog: A product or service which is in low growth market and for which the company has only minimal share of the market. The company should get out of such markets and use the resources elsewhere.

3. Corporate Parenting  

Corporate parenting views a corporation in terms of resources and capabilities that can be used to build business unit value as well as generate synergies across business units. Developing a corporate parenting strategy a corporation first examine each business units in terms of its strategic factors and areas in which performance can be improved. Then, analyze how well the parent corporation fits with the business unit.

7. Business Level Strategies:

Business strategy focuses on improving the competitive position of a company’s or business unit’s products or services within the specific industry or market segment that the company or business unit serves. Business strategies can be competitive or cooperative.

4. Porter’s Competitive Strategies (Generic Strategies)

Generic strategies are strategies which may be applied to any organizational context.

• Low-cost leadership
• Product differentiation
• Focus

Porter advocates that organizations should pursue one of the above strategies in order to gain a position as the leader in their industry. It is not possible, according to Porter, to follow more than one generic strategy simultaneously. Otherwise, the organization stuck in the middle of the competitive marketplace with no competitive advantage and doomed to below-average performance. According to Yamin, Gunasekaran, and Mavondo (1999), implementing these three generic strategies successfully requires different resources and skills. The generic strategies also imply differing organizational arrangements, control procedures and incentive systems. The generic strategies may also require different styles of leadership and can translate into very different corporate cultures and atmosphere.

        Cost-leadership is having a low cost position that likely to provide above-average returns in its industry. By maintaining a low-cost position the firm builds a defense against rivalry from competitors; its lower costs mean that it can still earn profits after its competitors have competed their profits away through rivalry.

        This strategy is more likely to generate increase in market share. Such a large market share means that the organization is able to derive advantage through economies of scale, market power and through savings on learning and experience curves.

        The risk that the low-cost leader faces is that its competitors may gain knowledge of its processes, utilize them, reduce their costs and thus reduce the leader’s profit margins. Inflationary price pressure can also cause problems for the cost leader. If new technology is introduced into the industry, it again erodes the margin. Changes in economy- changes in import duties or tariffs etc- can give advantage to competitors.  

        Differentiation is aimed at the broad mass market and involves the creation of a product or service that is perceived throughout its industry as unique. Uniqueness may be derived as a result of product characteristics or design, or via the services offered to the customers. It is viable strategy for earning above-average returns in a specific business because the resulting brand loyalty lowers customers’ sensitivity to price. It also serves as an entry barrier. Differentiation strategy is more likely to generate higher profits than low cost strategy.

        The risks inherent are that the cost of differentiating may make the product uncompetitive. Consumers may reject it on the ground. Alternatively, if it is accepted, the product becomes open to imitation.

        The final generic strategy, focus, involves elements of both low-cost and differentiation. The key point is that it is focused on a particular target market and serves their needs either by reducing cost or by differentiation.

5. Cooperative Strategies

Cooperative strategies are used to gain competitive advantage within an industry by working with other firms. Two general types are collusion and strategic alliances.

        Collusion is the active cooperation of firms within an industry to reduce output and raise prices in order to get around the normal economic law of supply and demand. Collusion is illegal in the most countries.

        Strategic alliance is a long term cooperative arrangement between two or more independent firms or business units that engage in business activities for mutual economic gain. Some forms of strategic alliances are joint-venture, licensing/franchising arrangements, value-chain partnership.

        Reasons to form strategic alliances are;

1. To obtain or learn new capabilities
2. To obtain access to specific markets
3. To reduce financial and political risks

8. Functional Level Strategies

Functional strategy is the approach a functional area takes to achieve corporate and business unit objectives and strategies by maximizing resource productivity. It is concerned with developing and nurturing a distinctive competence to provide a company or business unit with a competitive advantage. Just as multidivisional corporation has several business units, each with its own business strategy, each business unit has its own set of departments, each with its own functional strategy. Functional level strategies are shaped in the form of marketing, financial, R&D, operations, purchasing, logistics, HR, and IT strategies.

7. Strategic Choice

After the pros and cons of the potential strategic alternatives have been identified and evaluated, one must be selected for implementation.

        Perhaps the most important criterion is the capability of the proposed strategy to deal with the specific strategic factors developed in SWOT analysis. If the alternative does not take advantage of environmental opportunities and corporate strengths/competencies, and lead away from environmental threats and corporate weaknesses, it will probably fail.

        Another important consideration is the ability of each alternative to satisfy agreed on objectives with the least resources and the fewest negative side effects. It is important to develop tentative implementation plan in order to address the difficulties that management is likely to face. This should be done in light of societal trends, the industry and the company’s situation based on the construction of scenarios.

8. Strategy Implementation  

Strategy Implementation requires change within the organization: change in previous behavior, culture, the key players etc. Such changes will induce resistance. The ways in which strategic analysis, choice and planning are done will affect the implementation process. Some people may feel alienated, while others will be empowered, enthused and ready to go.

        Resistance to change can occur in many ways:

• Delay - in initiating or during the change process.
• Sabotage - either conscious or unconscious by individuals not fully committed.
• Rejection - actions by individuals does not believe that there is any need for change.
• Performance deterioration – it is unlikely that the productivity and performance of the organization will improve immediately the new strategy is implemented. Time to adapt to new system is required.
• Competition – there will be a time period where the organization is running two systems, the new and the old. So, these two will be in competition for resources of all kinds.
• Lack of ownership, leadership and control - successful implementation requires a key figure to lead the process and regular measurement to ensure that it is progressing adequately.

        Resistance to change occurs because individuals feel threatened by aspects of its implementation. Obviously, if change is carefully planned and communicated, resistance can be reduced or avoided. Make people understand their roles in the process can be beneficial. Allowing individuals to give their input regarding the manner in which things should be implemented can also assist the process. If leaders exhibit visible reactions to the process, change may be more effective. This mainly deals with the manner in which the workforce is won over by management, motivated and enthused with reference to the changes ahead of them.

        Lewin’s model (1958) of strategic change, a basic model, is a three-phase model. It deals with people aspect of the change process and requires understanding of the manner in which people learn and behave.

• Unfreeze:  assist people to unlearn their behavior.
• Relearn: teach people the new way of doing things.
• Refreeze: make the change stick by putting in reinforcements such as reward.

        There are other important factors for management to consider when implementing strategy. The readiness of the organization to implement the strategy and its current ability to do so are very important. Resource analysis, cultural and stakeholder analysis are useful tools to ascertain the organization’s current position. Formulation of new teams, or reorganization of existing teams, may be also necessary.

        Additionally, the implementation stage requires there to be key players and leaders with ownership of the new strategy and the workforce must also feel ownership. To monitor the ongoing success of the implementation at various stages, all those involved need to be aware of the key performance criteria, and the manner and timing of their measurement. In most instances, change is managed in stages across the organization.

 

4. Conclusion

In business world, it is getting harder to be successful or to achieve sustainability in an unstable and fast changing global environment. Regardless of the size or the content of the organization, all managers must be well aware of the business strategy in such an environment. At first, organization should understand the environment around them- external and internal. It is important to understand what a corporation is capable of doing and what opportunities they can match to use these capabilities while eliminating the effects of weaknesses and threats. Then, managers need to understand and evaluate the alternative strategies in corporate, business and functional levels. What strategies can be used in which levels of the corporation is also an important point and managers’ knowledge and experiences can make a difference in this situations. After analyzing and evaluating the alternatives, they need to choose the best alternative. Once strategies have been chosen, it is time to put them into action. This process might involve changes within the overall culture, structure, and/or management system of the entire organization. Thus, beside theoretical knowledge and technical experience, a manager has to have good communication skills and possibly should be a leader to manage change well and motivate people. After implementing the strategy, performance results are monitored so that actual performance can be compared with desired performance. The resulting information is used to take corrective action and resolve problems.  

5. References

Atkinson, B. and R. Miller (1998), Business Economics, Prentice Hall, UK.

Cook, M. and C. Farquharson (1998), Business Economics, Prentice Hall, UK.

Hornby, W., B. Gammie, and S. Wall (2001), Business Economics, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, UK.

Kotler, P. and G. Armstrong (2009), Principles of Marketing: Global Edition, 13th edition, Pearson, USA.

Mansfield, W., B. Allen, N.A.Doherty and  K.Weigelt (2002), Managerial Economics: Theory, Application and Cases, 5th edition, by E. W.W Norton & Company, USA.

Quezada L. E., F. M. Co’rdova, S. Widmer, C. O’Brien (1999), A methodology for formulating a business strategy in manufacturing firms, International Journal of Production Economics, Volumes 60-61, Pages 87-94.  

Wheelen, T. L. and J. D. Hunger (2010), Strategic Management and Business Policy: Achieving Sustainability, 12th edition, Pearson, USA.

Yamin, S., A. Gunasekaran, F. T. Mavondo (1999), Relationship between generic strategies, competitive advantage and organizational performance: an empirical analysis, Technovation, Volume 19, Issue 8, Pages 507-518.