1. What do companies need to consider in order to achieve a successful differentiation strategy? 2. Describe the four major categories or sources of product or service differentiation? 3.What are the traits of social value organizations and how do they differ from other types of organizations? 4.What is the role of metrics and measurement in the strategy process? Why are they so important to the strategy process? What are the possible outcomes for a company that decides not to put metrics and measurement into its strategic plan? 5. What are key areas that businesses need to look at when evaluating their performance? 6. What are the benefits and challenges of technological development for businesses? 7.How can a business use technological development to create strategic advantage? 8. What is corporate social responsibility? How can philanthropy add value to a company’s shareholders? Stakeholders?

Q1 Differentiation Strategy

Differentiation typically depends on a large section of the market segment that any business plans or is currently selling its goods and services; thus, a business can use various marketing research techniques including surveys and questionnaire in defining the general parameters and the type differentiation customers find effective. Therefore, achieving a successful differentiation strategy needs industries to continually communicate the differentiation were building a product with modern features, performance or unique production elements typically gets the business successful. Thus, the company must disclose the distinction to the distributors, retail shops and end users (De Loecker, 2011). Also, as part of achieving a successful differentiation strategy, industries ought to come up with one type of differentiation useful to the target market desires together with its financial constraints, and concentrate its efforts on honing goods and services along the dimension. Product differentiation is probably the most visible way of achieving a successful differentiation strategy as it is likely to take the form of features, performance, or various criteria that are typically effective to the end users.

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1. What do companies need to consider in order to achieve a successful differentiation strategy? 2. Describe the four major categories or sources of product or service differentiation? 3.What are the traits of social value organizations and how do they differ from other types of organizations? 4.What is the role of metrics and measurement in the strategy process? Why are they so important to the strategy process? What are the possible outcomes for a company that decides not to put metrics and measurement into its strategic plan? 5. What are key areas that businesses need to look at when evaluating their performance? 6. What are the benefits and challenges of technological development for businesses? 7.How can a business use technological development to create strategic advantage? 8. What is corporate social responsibility? How can philanthropy add value to a company’s shareholders? Stakeholders?
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Q2 Categories of Product Differentiation

Product differentiation is considered as a marketing technique that showcases the difference existing between goods and services. Its primary intention is to make a given product more appealing through contrasting its unique features with other competing goods within the marketing environment. Successful goods differentiation leads to a competitive gain for the products seller, as consumers view these goods as being better-quality. Therefore, the four categories of product differentiation include the differentiation focus strategy that targets a given segment of a market. The second category is the cost focus where the business strategically aims a specific section of the demand and provides the market with the lowest prices available that are effective for the business operations (De Loecker, 2011). The third category involves the vertical differentiation that manifest in a market environment where the many products that are available can be prepared as per their purpose quality from the maximum to the lowest. The fourth category is the horizontal differentiation that is associated with the colors, flavors, tastes and other features that cannot be ordered objectively.

Q3 Social Value Organizations

The primary intention of many entrepreneurs is to conduct businesses that typically encourage profit making and also capable of supporting the social values that will benefit others and their society at large. Therefore, social costs can be introduced into the daily business plans, or can strategically be the driving factor behind the start of a business venture (Wu, Lin & Tsai, 2010). The main traits of social value institutions incorporate all the qualities including the structure, leadership, division of labor, the communication strategies among other essential considerations. With all these characters, individuals can keep track of their daily operations and take part in various activities. These comprise of maintaining the records, collective resources, and the overall sustainability of individuals. Social value organizations differ from other institutions in that their relations come together to build up common elements and characters in basic social units that make up the venture, states, or family.

Q4 Role of Metrics and Measurement

Metrics and measurements have emerged as essential factors in the strategy process where they assist in measuring the objectives and the task to be accomplished after a specific period (Grafton, Lillis & Widener, 2010). In the strategy process, metrics and measurement assist in understanding the degree of progress that has been made within the institution in meeting the set goals and objectives together with satisfying the consumer needs. Metrics also makes the production process objective as they have to be designed according to the clients essential to quality wants and changing the vague requirements that a consumer presents into a series of numbers that can be applied to map the procedures for its efficiency effectively. Organizations that fail to embrace metrics and measurement will fail to understand the specific goods and services that customers prefer to be accomplished in time thus leading to low production and profit level.

Q5 Evaluating Performance

Increasing revenues and profits are essential objectives for all business set up; thus, the organization’s progress towards achieving these objectives is used in assessing the business’s performance. Other factors ought to be put into consideration in measuring performance based on examining additional essential statistics (Wu, Lin & Tsai, 2010). One of the fundamental areas includes the key performance indicators that are used in scrutinizing the organization’s performance as they will assist in knowing the areas that ought to be improved. Customer satisfaction is another area that is essential in performance evaluation as this contributes to the business’s long-term success. The significant performance variables are typically repeated orders and the level of consumer acquisition. Financial considerations including profit margin indicators are also essential in evaluating performance on purely commercial terms and compensation. The liquidity and solvency ratios scrutinize the organization’s performance in ensuring that it continues with its operations. Product quality is a significant aspect of performance evaluation as it measures the company’s return on both varieties and affects the profitability margin directly.

Q6 Technological Developments

Technology has evolved in every part of the business operations and how various businesses achieve their visions in the 21st century. Ranging from the sales support to more natural fulfillment techniques, businesses owners can now make multiple advantages from many software, hardware, and online pros all of which technology has provided. As part of the benefits, technology has assisted businesses in streamlining their procedures as it allows production to move quicker and reducing expenses (Kim, Im & Slater, 2013). Also, technology has led to the more mobile workforce through the use of wireless internet access and cloud computing that enables mobile workers to access the organization’s programs, resources, and essential data. However, there are disadvantages associated with technology, and they include security issues such as the risk of cyber-crime where unauthorized people typically access customer’s information thus costing businesses several financial problems. Also, technology has ongoing expenses that begin with its actual purchase maintenance, updates, and training.

Q7 Technology in Strategic Advantage

The achievement of sustainable strategic advantage from technology is increasingly significant to both the small and medium-sized organizations and large businesses; recently, there are various methods in using technology and precisely information systems tools in enhancing business operations. Companies can use information gadgets in changing the overall price of doing business or in dropping the price of business procedures and those of customers; for instance, through the use of online marketing, industry to a business representation and electronic procurement will typically reduce operating expenses. According to Kim, N., Im, S., & Slater, S. F. (2013), an excellent example of business to the business model is an Irish start-up labeled bullet HQ that aims at disrupting the accountancy market through its online office software for both small and middle institutions in Ireland.

 

Q8 Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility shortened as “CSR” is a corporation’s initiative that is aimed at assessing and taking full accountability for the business’s effects on environmental and societal stability. The term commonly applies to the mechanism that extends the things that may be needed by the regulators or environmental protection sectors (Carroll & Shabana, 2010). The situation for philanthropy emerge from two various sources; planned philanthropist documents that, while philanthropy is not likely to lead to direct fiscal returns, it will improve the organization’s prolonged competitive position via insubstantial gains in status, legitimacy, or worker loyalty. Therefore, the productivity of philanthropy is one existing example of the broader, more extended talk on the connection of corporate social responsibility to organizational monetary performance.

 

References

Carroll, A. B., & Shabana, K. M. (2010). The business case for corporate social responsibility: A review of concepts, research and practice. International journal of management reviews12(1), 85-105.

De Loecker, J. (2011). Product differentiation, multiproduct firms, and estimating the impact of trade liberalization on productivity. Econometrica79(5), 1407-1451.

Grafton, J., Lillis, A. M., & Widener, S. K. (2010). The role of performance measurement and evaluation in building organizational capabilities and performance. Accounting, Organizations and Society35(7), 689-706.

Kim, N., Im, S., & Slater, S. F. (2013). Impact of knowledge type and strategic orientation on new product creativity and advantage in hightechnology firms. Journal of Product Innovation Management30(1), 136-153.

Wu, C. R., Lin, C. T., & Tsai, P. H. (2010). Evaluating business performance of wealth management banks. European Journal of Operational Research207(2), 971-979.

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