Discussion Topic: VCA, RBV, and SWOT Analyses
Discuss how you can use VCA, RBV, and SWOT analyses to gain a stronger sense of what might be a firm’s key building blocks are for a successful strategy.
Choose a Fortune 1000 company to demonstrate these aforementioned analyses.
Please remember to use APA citation (text and list references) to further validate your initial responses. Take time to review the responses of your classmates and provide your feedback.
Sample paper
Business Strategy Discussion
Various analyses tools such as VCA, RBV, and SWOT can be used to gain a stronger sense of Southwest Airline’s key building blocks with regard to a successful strategy. Value chain analysis (VCA) enables a firm to determine the primary and other supportive activities that increase the value of its products and to select the activities that lead to cost savings and higher differentiation (Peng, 2014). Southwest Airlines can use VCA analysis to examine the effectiveness of its internal activities. For instance, the analysis can help determine which internal activities provided to customers are the most effective in achieving a differentiation advantage from the rest of the airlines. Southwest Airlines has introduced a range of activities such as in-flight entertainment, free Wi-Fi, movies, TV, and others in order to attract a large customer base (Southwest Airlines, 2016).
Southwest Airlines can employ a resource based view (RBV) analysis to gain a stronger sense of its key building blocks. RBV model assumes that resources are the key for a firm to achieve optimal performance (Peng, 2014). Proponents of this model assert that firms should be keen on analyzing their internal strengths rather than focusing on the competitive environment. Southwest Airlines can apply this model to evaluate the strengths of its tangible and intangible resources. Tangible resources include physical resources (airliners), human resources (loyalty of employees), and financial resources. Southwest Airlines intangible resources include goodwill, intellectual resources, and technical resources.
Southwest Airlines can also use a SWOT analysis gain a stronger sense of the firm’s key building blocks. A SWOT analysis is an examination of the firm’s internal and external environment. SWOT analysis helps examine the strengths and weaknesses in the internal environment, and the opportunity and threats in the external environment. Southwest Airlines can use this tool to examine its internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as the threats and opportunities in the external environment.
References
Peng, M. W. (2014). Global strategy. Mason, Ohio: South-Western.
Southwest Airlines. (2016). WiFi and inflight entertainment. Retrieved from https://www.southwest.com/html/air/products/wifi-access.html?clk=GFOOTER- PRODUCTS-WIFI
