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Example research essay topic: Competitive Advantage Core Competencies - 1,629 words

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... com, one of its major competitors, and with industry standards, it is evident that they are in a strong financial position. This fact is proven through analyzing its financial statements and ratios. The financial statements show that eBay has continued to grow in net income as well as total assets, demonstrating its overall success and growth of as a company.

The growing increase in liabilities is mainly in part of investments to continuing growth and advancing technology. By looking at e Bays financial statements, and comparing them to its competitors, it can be concluded that eBay has been continuing to grow in all aspects of its company, advancing its competitive advantage, and increasing its overall profits. After calculating and analyzing the ratios it is possible to make many more conclusions about e Bays financial situation. eBay has a very high current ratio, demonstrating that it has more than enough short-term assets to cover its immediate liabilities, but it also shows that eBay might not be investing enough of its excess assets. The debt-to-asset ratio for eBay is very low which means that its assets are financed more through equity than debt, and not a very debt leveraged firm.

The debt-to-equity ratio is very low for eBay showing that equity provides a majority of the financing, but it is also exposing itself to a large amount of equity. The cash flow-to-assets ratio over the past three years portrays that eBay is growing in cash flows and is less likely to run into problems generating cash in the future. The increasing ROE is another example of how eBay is continuing to grow, because a higher ROE is expected in high growth companies. And finally the gross profit margin proves that eBay is generating a very large percent of net income from each dollar of sales.

This ability to earn a high profit per dollar of sales is because of its very low cost to generate income, and this contributes greatly to the growing of e Bays overall financial strength. Section 2 - Business Level Part 1 - Business Level Analysis 1. Apply the five forces model to the industry in which the business is based. What does this analysis tell you about the nature of competition in the industry? The risk of entry by potential competitors is relatively high due to low barriers to entry. New competitors can launch new sites at a nominal cost using commercially available software.

This low barrier to entry will cause competition to intensify in the future. Also due to the broad range of products sold at eBay there is many more opportunities for new competitors to enter in more specific market segments. The degree of rivalry among established companies within e Bays industry is very high. This high degree of rivalry is very common in discount retail industry due to the high concentration on being the price leader. Ebay's competition is very broad and varies with each of its different products.

eBay competes closely with many well know broad-based companies such as traditional department and general merchandise stores, as well as a large variety of online retailers. Due to this complex competitive industry, eBay must concentrate on many competitive factors such as: ability to attract buyers, volume of transactions and selection of goods, customer service, system reliability, brand recognition, and many others to keep their edge. The bargaining power of buyers is low because the seller sets the prices of the products and because a majority of the sales are in an auction platform. This gives eBay and the buyer less control of the products prices, but in most cases the large amount of sellers per product keeps the prices low and competitive.

The buyers benefit from the competition of the sellers, convenience of a trade environment, and not on the power of price bargaining. The bargaining power of suppliers is relatively high because eBay must keep its fees and commissions low in order to attract and keep loyal sellers. Sellers are the suppliers of the products and are able to pick from different auction companies and select one offering the lowest fees and commissions. The ability for the suppliers to select the company offering lower selling costs and higher profits per sale, forces eBay to remain competitive in selling costs. With the power more in the suppliers hands eBay is required to satisfy their needs with higher customer service, more convenient selling platform, and lower selling costs in order to keep a large supplier base and attract new sellers. The threat of substitution is high due to the growing number of online auction and shopping sites.

Online retail is a highly volatile and rapidly growing industry where substitutes and rivaling competitors can emerge with relatively minimal costs and in a short amount of time. This high degree of threat forces eBay to continuously use its strong finances to maximize user satisfaction and to acquire high quality auction properties in order to remain dominant in its industry. After analyzing the forces of this industry I believe that the competition is very intense. In order to succeed in this industry a company must continuously improve all of its aspects of business.

If the company becomes content or satisfied with its success it will be quickly surpassed or replaced by another competitor. This industry is extremely volatile and it is imperative to invest in improving your company in order to remain competitive. 2. In what stage of its life cycle is the industry in which the business is based? eBay is obviously in an industry in the growth stage of the life cycle. The online retail industry is exploding right now due the low prices and convenience of an at home search and buy environment. The high degree of demand in this growing industry has attracted many new online retail companies and caused many offline retailers to develop online sites as well.

The industry is relatively new and expected to continue to grow not entering the shakeout stage any time soon. 3. What are the implications for the business of being in this stage of the life cycle in terms of the intensity of competition both now and in the future? eBay clearly recognizes its industry as rapidly growing, and has made numerous plans to keep up with the demand and continue its dominance. It realizes its presence highly competitive market and concentrates heavily on leading the competition. eBay believes that if it continues to focus on attracting a larger user base, increasing customer service, developing strong brand recognition, improving its technology and system reliability, and preserving quality of its products and services, it will continue to lead the growing competition in the future.

I believe that eBay is well aware of its environment and has been successful in keeping up its competitive intensity and has made substantial plans to continue its success. 4. What are the core competencies of the business? e Bays core competencies include many of its principal competitive factors. These factors include: brand recognition; ability to attract buyers; volume of transactions and selection of goods; customer service; community cohesion and interaction; system reliability (technology); reliability of delivery and payment; website convenience and accessibility; level of service fees; and quality of search tools. 5. What is the generic competitive strategy pursued by the business? e Bays objective is to build upon its position as the worlds leading community-commerce model and the most compelling commerce platform on the Internet.

Its vision is to help practically anyone buy or sell practically anything in the world. Some of e Bays key strategic elements include: broaden the eBay trading platform; foster eBay community affinity; enhance features and functionality; expand value added services; and continue to develop US and international markets. 6. Does the business possess the appropriate set of competencies to pursue the generic competitive strategy identified above? I believe that eBay has the resources and competencies to strive for its overall generic strategy. If eBay continues to utilize its resources and capitalize on its competitive advantage then it should continue to achieve success in the future. e Bays generic strategy is very broad which I think is important because they compete in many different markets.

Constantly striving for their overall strategy, as well as, improving and expanding their core competencies will help eBay to remain ahead of its competition. 7. Does the business have a sustainable competitive advantage? eBay is involved in many different markets such as business-to-business, specific categories of goods, broad-based goods, and other online auction sites. This wide variety of markets makes it difficult to dominate each one, but eBay is the leading online auction site.

eBay is also near the top in competition in all of its other markets. As eBay continues to expand its user base and product selection, it will continue to strengthen its competitive advantage. eBay is involved in many volatile markets prominently based on price leading and product selection, and it must strive to constantly improve all of its aspects of business in order to remain competitive. Part 2 - SWOT Analysis 1.

Identify the businesss key strengths. Why are these strengths? Marketing Brand recognition Ability to attract users Dynamic Pricing Format 2. Identify the businesss key weaknesses. Why are these weaknesses?

Low control over product quality Ability to accommodate for growth 3. Identify the businesss key opportunities. Why are these opportunities? International market Half. com (fixed price) 4. Identify the businesss key threats.

Why are these threats? Hackers Rapid user growth Competitors Legal cases, regulations Consumer acceptance / confidence in the Internet 5. Is the business as a whole dealing effectively with environmental threats? 6. Is the business as a whole effectively exploiting environmental opportunities? 7. Is the business as a whole in an overall competitive position?


Free research essays on topics related to: competitive advantage, brand recognition, core competencies, remain competitive, rapidly growing

Research essay sample on Competitive Advantage Core Competencies

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