1、 外文翻译 原文 The competitive advantage theory as a growth strategy Material Source: EB/OL . http:/ideas.repec.org/a/aio/rteyej/v1y2008i11p47-52.html, 2008.11.05 Author:Ec. Ecaterina Nicoleta Ciurez Abstract: To do well in any business you must develop a long-term strategy. Making consistent decisions in
2、 all aspects of a firms operations is difficult without a well-defined and clearly integrated strategy. By far the most widely pursued corporate directional strategies are those designed to achieve growth in sales, assets, profits or some combination. Companies that do business in expanding industri
3、es must grow to survive. Continuing growth means increasing sales and a chance to take advantage of the experience curve to reduce the per-unit cost of products sold, thereby increasing profits. This cost reduction becomes extremely important if a corporations industry is growing quickly and competi
4、tors are engaging in price wars in attempts to increase their shares of the market. Firms that have not reached “critical mass” (that is, gained the necessary economy of large scale production) will face large losses unless they can find and fill a small but profitable niche where higher prices can
5、be offset by special product or service features. Keywords: competitive advantage, growth strategy, growth resources, core competencies, explicit knowledge, tacit knowledge Michael Porter in his book The Competitive Advantage of Nations, has developed a model that allows to analyze why some nations
6、are more competitive than others and also why some industries within nations are more competitive than others. This model of determining factors of national advantage has become known as Porters Diamond. It suggests that the national home base of an organization plays an important role in shaping th
7、e extent to which it is likely to achieve advantage on a global scale. This home base provides basic factors, which support or hinder organizations from building advantages in global competition. Porters Five Forces Analysis is a tool for analyzing the attractiveness of an industry. It has 5 compone
8、nts -customer, competitor, suppliers, barriers to entry, threat of substitutes. The tool allows you to consider each of these areas and to determine whether this is going to be profitable or not for companies in that industry. Porter identifies many elements that can be considered in each of these a
9、reas. These factors can be scored, the higher the score the better the industry. A simple way to do this is to score each factor out of four: 1: weak; 4: strong. 1 Threat of New Entrants New entrants to an industry typically bring to it new capacity, a desire to gain market share, and substantial re
10、sources. They are, therefore, threats to an established corporation. The threat of entry depends on the presence of entry barriers and the reaction that can be expected from existing competitors. An entry barrier is an obstruction that makes it difficult for a company to enter an industry. Some of t
11、he possible barriers of entry are: Economies of scale: scale economies in the production and sales of some products give to the manufacturing company a significant cost advantage over any new rival. Product differentiation: some big corporations create high entry barriers through their high level of
12、 advertising and promotion. Capital requirements: the need to invest huge financial resources in manufacturing facilities creates a significant barrier to entry to any competitor. Switching costs: for example for a new software which training costs are very high. Access to distribution channels: sma
13、ll entrepreneur often have difficulty in obtaining supermarket shelf space for their goods because large retailers charge for space and give priority to the firms who can pay for the advertising needed to generate high customer demand. Cost disadvantages independent of size: once a new product earns
14、 sufficient market share to be accepted as the standard for that type of product, the maker has a key advantage. Government policy: governments can limit entry into an industry through licensing requirements by restricting access to raw materials such as oil-drilling protected areas. 2 Rivalry Among
15、 Existing Firms In most industries, corporations are mutually dependent. A competitive move by one firm can be expected to have a noticeable effect on its competitors and thus may cause retaliation or counter efforts. According to Porter, intense rivalry is related to the presence of several factors
16、, including: Number of competitors when the competitors are few and roughly equal in size, they watch each other carefully to make sure that any move by another firm is matched by an equal countermove. Rate of industry growth any the only path to growth is to take sales away from a competitor. Produ
17、ct or service characteristics - many people choose a product based on location, variety of selection and pricing. Amount of fixed costs special offers for customers. Capacity if the only way a manufacturer can increase capacity is in a large increment by building a new plant, it will run that new pl
18、an at full capacity to keep unit costs as low as possible -thus producing so much that the selling price falls through industry. Height of exit barriers exit barriers keep a company from leaving an industry ; the brewing industry, for example, has a low percentage of companies that voluntarily leave
19、 the industry because breweries are specialized assets with few uses except for making beer. Diversity of rivals - rivals that are very different ideas of how to compete are likely to cross paths often and unknowingly challenge each others position. This happens often in the retail clothing industry
20、 when a number of retailers open outlets in the same location, thus taking sales away from each other. 3 Threat of Substitute Products or Services Substitute products are those products that appear to be different but can satisfy the same need as another product (for example, Nutrasweet is a substit
21、ute for sugar). According to Porter, “substitutes limit the potential returns of an industry by placing a ceiling on the prices firms in the industry can profitably charge.” To the extent that switching costs are low, substitutes may have a strong effect on an industry. Tea can be considered a subst
22、itute for coffee. If the price of coffee goes up high enough, coffee drinkers will slowly begin switching for tea. The price of tea thus puts a price ceiling on the price of coffee. Identifying possible substitute products or services is sometimes a difficult task. It means searching for products or
23、 services that can perform the same function, even though they have a different appearance and may not appear to be easily substitutable. 4 Bargaining Power of Buyers Buyers affect an industry through their ability to force down prices, bargain for higher quality or more services, and play competito
24、rs against each other. A buyer or a group of buyers is powerful if some of the following factors hold true: A buyer purchases a large proportion of the sellers product or service (for example, oil filters purchased by a major auto maker) A buyer has the potential to integrate backward by producing t
25、he product itself (for example a newspaper chain could make its own paper) Alternative suppliers are plentiful because the product is standard or undifferentiated (for example, motorists can choose among many gas stations) Changing suppliers costs very little (for example, office supplies are easy t
26、o find) The purchased product represents a high percentage of a buyers costs, thus providing an incentive to shop around for a lower price (for example, gasoline purchased for resale by convenience stores makes up half their total costs) A buyer earns low profits and is thus very sensitive to costs
27、and service differences (for example, grocery stores have very small margins) The purchased product is unimportant to the final quality or price of a buyers products or services and thus can be easily substituted without affecting the final product adversely (for example, electric wire bought for us
28、e in lamps) 5 Bargaining Power of Suppliers Suppliers can affect an industry through their ability to raise prices or reduce the quality of purchased goods and services. A supplier or supplier group is powerful if some of the following factors apply: The supplier industry is dominated by a few compa
29、nies, but it sells to many Its product or service is unique and/or it has built up switching costs Substitutes are not readily available Suppliers are able to integrate forward and compete directly with their present customers A purchasing industry buys only a small portion of the supplier groups go
30、ods and services and is thus unimportant to the supplier 6 Relative Power of Other Stakeholders A sixth force should be added to porters list to include a variety of stakeholder groups from the task environment. Some of these groups are governments (if not explicitly included elsewhere), local commu
31、nities, creditors (if not included with suppliers), trade associations, special interests groups, unions (if not included with suppliers), shareholders, and complementors. A complementor is a company or an industry whose product works well with another industrys or a firms product and without which
32、the product would lose much of its value. Michael Porter proposes two “generic” competitive strategies for outperforming other corporations in a particular industry: lower cost and differentiation. These strategies are called generic because they can be pursued by any type of size of business firm,
33、even by non-profit organizations. - Lower cost strategy is the ability of a company or a business unit to design, produce and market a comparable product more efficiently than its competitors - Differentiation strategy is the ability to provide unique and superior value to the buyer in terms of prod
34、uct quality, special features or after-sales service. Cost leadership is a low-cost competitive strategy that aims at the broad mass market and requires “aggressive construction of efficient scale facilities, vigorous pursuit of cost reductions from experience, tight cost and overhead control, avoid
35、ance of marginal customer accounts and cost minimization in areas like R 4 ： 强。 1 潜在进入者的威胁 新的进入者通常给这行业带来了新的能力，想要开拓市场并获得大量的资源。他们就应为如此，而会威胁到一个以建立的公司。进入者的威胁取决于进入壁垒的存在和反应 ,这可以从现有的竞争者身上预料。一个进入壁垒是一种阻塞，这种阻塞使得一个公司难以进入一个行业。对入境时可能存在的障碍有： 规模经济：规模经济的生产和部分产品销售使制造公司在面对任何新的竞争对手时有着显著的成本优势。 产品差异：一些大公司通过其高层次的广告和宣传来建立
36、高门槛。 资本要求：需投资于生产设施的巨大财政资源造成进入任何竞争对手的一个重大障碍 转换成本：例如运用一个新的软件的培训费用十分昂贵 分销渠道：小型企业家往往难以取得他们的商品超市的货架空间，因为大型零售商卖货架时把可以支付高额的广告宣传费用的公司作为优先考虑的公司 成本劣势的大小独立：一旦新产品获得足够的市场份额并且该产品类型的标准被接受，制造商就拥有一个重要优势 政府的政策：政府可以通过发牌限制原材料的规定来限制进入一个行业，如石油钻井原料。 2 现 有企业之间的竞争 在大多数行业，企业是相互依存的。一个企业的竞争移动可以预想到对其竞争对手会有明显的影响，从而可能导致报复。根据波特的理论
37、，激烈的竞争关系到一下几个因素，包括： 竞争者数目 -当竞争对手少且实力大致相等时，他们彼此仔细观察以确保另一个企业的任何移动是符合一个平等的措施 行业增长速度 - 对经济增长的唯一途径就是采取远离从竞争对手的销售 产品或服务的特点 - 许多人选择一个产品是以其产地，品种的选择和定价 固定成本的数量 - 为客户提供特别优惠 生产力 -如果一个制造商提高生产能力的唯一方法是建设 一个新的大产量的工厂，它将运行一个满负荷生产的新计划以尽可能降低单位成本 -因此而生产过多而导致该行业的销售价格下降 高退出壁垒 -退出壁垒迫使一个公司退出该行业；酿造业，例如，有一小部分的公司自愿离开这个行业，因为啤酒
38、厂除了制造啤酒很少使用专用性资产 多变的对手 -对手有非常不同竞争方法就像在交叉路口往往不知不觉地挑战对方的立场。这种情况往往出现在服装零售行业，当一些零售商在同一地点公开发售，因此销售应当远离对方。 3 替代产品或服务的威胁 替代产品是指那些产品看似不同，但与其他产品一样能满足同样需求（例如， 甜味剂是糖的替代品）。 根据波特所述，“替代品通过设置在同行业中企业的价格上限来限制一个行业的潜在回报从而盈利。”在某种程度上，若转换成本低，替代品可能对一个行业造成很大的影响。茶可以被认为是咖啡的替代品。如果咖啡价格上涨到足够高时，喝咖啡会开始慢慢转变成喝茶。茶叶的价格因此设置了咖啡价格的上限价格。
39、辨别可能的替代产品或服务有时是很困难的任务。这意味着寻找到产品或服务可以获得相同的功能，即使他们有不同的外观和可能似乎易于替代的。 4 买方的讨价还价能力 买家通过其迫使价格下降的能力来影响行业，讨价还价以得到 更高质量或更多的服务，以及互相扮演竞争者的角色。如果秉承下列因素是，则说明一个或一群的买家是有能力： 买家购买卖方大部分比例的产品或服务（例如，机油滤清器被一个主要的汽车制造商购买） 买家有可能通过生产产品的本身来整合产品（例如报纸链可以做出自己的报纸） 替代供应商很充裕的，因为产品是标准的或分化（例如，司机可以选择在许多加油站加油） 改变供应商的成本很小（例如，办公用品很容易找到） 购买的产品代表了一个买家的成本的比例高，从而刺激周围的商店降低价格（例如，由便利店转售的汽油使总成本的降低一半） 买家赚取低 利润，因而对成本和服务的差异非常敏感（例如，杂货店都有非常小的差距）
