Strategic management in the Telecom industry to create competitive advantage

O presente trabalho teve por objetivos a identificação de uma estratégia e o desenvolvimento de um modelo que permita às operadoras de telecomunicações a sua sustentabilidade, bem como a identificação de caminhos para a adaptação a uma realidade sempre em mudança como é a da indústria das telecomunicações. Numa primeira parte do trabalho elaborou-se uma revisão de literatura do atual estado da arte das principais estratégias relevantes e com aplicação à indústria de telecomunicações. A pesquisa realizada investigou a estrutura atual da indústria de telecomunicações e o estado da competitividade das operadoras de telecomunicações. Dos resultados desta foi possível constatar uma evolução constante da tecnologia e dos modelos de negócio neste ecossistema, assim como a presença de uma pressão concorrencial significativa exercida sobre as operadoras, quer por parte das empresas já existentes no mercado quer por parte das emergentes. As operadoras têm de transformar o seu modelo de rede e de negócios para se adaptarem às mudanças e às tendências da indústria e do mercado. Com base na revisão de literatura, elegeu-se a metodologia baseada num inquérito de pesquisa empírica para aferir o estado da indústria e derivar as estratégias possíveis. Este inquérito foi efetuado a especialistas da área de telecomunicações de diferentes subsectores e países para abordar todos os elementos estratégicos do modelo de negócio futuro. Os resultados da pesquisa revelaram que as empresas que operam no mercado da Internet (Over The Top - OTT) representam a maior ameaça sobre o futuro dos operadores de telecomunicações. Os operadores só vão conseguir responder através da modernização de sua rede, melhorando a qualidade, reduzindo o custo global, e investindo em produtos inovadores e diferenciados e em serviços. Os resultados do inquérito revelam-se de acordo com os pressupostos da Blue Ocean Strategy. A aplicabilidade da Blue Ocean Strategy foi aprofundada permitindo concluir que o valor inovador obtido simultaneamente através da redução de custos e da diferenciação permitem aumentar as vantagens dos operadores existentes em termos das infra-estruturas físicas detidas e das relações estabelecidas com os clientes. O caso particular da fibra óptica até casa (FTTH) foi considerado como aplicação da Blue Ocean Strategy a uma nova tecnologia que as operadoras podem implementar para criar novas soluções e abrir segmentos de mercado inexplorados. Os resultados do inquérito e da investigação realizada à aplicação da Blue Ocean Strategy foram combinados para propor um novo modelo de negócio para as operadoras de telecomunicações que lhes permite, não só responder aos desafios existentes, mas, também, ter uma melhor posição competitiva no futuro. Foi, ainda, realizado um estudo de caso que destacou como a Verizon Communications foi capaz de transformar a sua rede e o modelo de negócio em resposta ao aumento da pressão competitiva. Através do valor da inovação transferida aos seus clientes, a Verizon foi capaz de aumentar significativamente as suas receitas e satisfação do cliente.

Influence of Different Performance Levels on Pacing Strategy During the Women's World Championship Marathon Race.

Purpose To analyse pacing strategies displayed by athletes achieving differing levels of performance during an elite level marathon race. Methods Competitors in the 2009 IAAF Women’s Marathon Championship were split into Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 comprising the first, second, third, and fourth 25% of finishers respectively. Final, intermediate, and personal best (PB) times of finishers were converted to mean speeds, and relative speed (% of PB speed) was calculated for intermediate segments. Results Mean PB speed decreased from Group 1 to 4 and speed maintained in the race was 98.5 + 1.8%, 97.4 + 3.2%, 95.0 + 3.1% and 92.4 + 4.4% of PB speed for Groups 1-4 respectively. Group 1 was fastest in all segments and differences in speed between groups increased throughout the race. Group 1 ran at lower relative speeds than other groups for the first two 5 km segments, but higher relative speeds after 35km. Significant differences (P<0.01) in the percentage of PB speed maintained were observed between Groups 1 and 4, and 2 and 4 in all segments after 20 km, and Groups 3 and 4 from 20-25 km and 30-35 km. Conclusions Group 1 athletes achieved superior finishing times relative to their PB than athletes in other Groups who selected unsustainable initial speeds resulting in subsequent significant losses of speed. It is suggested that psychological factors specific to a major competitive event influenced decision making by athletes and poor decisions resulted in final performances inferior to those expected based on PB times.

Revisiting the relationship between marketing capabilities and firm performance: The moderating role of market orientation, marketing strategy and organisational power

This paper extends original insights of resource-advantage theory (Hunt & Morgan, 1995) to a specific analysis of the moderators of the capabilities-performance relationship such as market orientation, marketing strategy and organizational power. Using established measures and a representative sample of UK firms drawn from Verhoef and Leeflang’s data (2009), our study tests new hypotheses to explain how different types of marketing capabilities contribute to firm performance. The application of resource-advantage theory advances theorising on both marketing and organisational antecedents of firm performance and the causal mechanisms by which competitive advantage is generated.

Crowdsourcing innovation: a strategy to leverage enterprise innovation

Innovation is recognized by academics and practitioners as an essential competitive enabler for any company to survive, to remain competitive and to grow. Investments in tasks of R&D have not always brought the expected results. But that doesn't mean that the outcomes would not be useful to other companies of the same business area or even from another area. Thus, there is much knowledge already available in the market that can be helpful to some and profitable to others. So, the ideas and expertise can be found outside a company's boundaries and also exported from within. Information, knowledge, experience, wisdom is already available in the millions of the human beings of this planet, the challenge is to use them through a network to produce new ideas and tips that can be useful to a company with less costs. This was the reason for the emergence of the area of crowdsourcing innovation. Crowdsourcing innovation is a way of using the Web 2.0 tools to generate new ideas through the heterogeneous knowledge available in the global network of individuals highly qualified and with easy access to information and technology. So, a crowdsourcing innovation broker is an organization that mediates the communication and relationship between the seekers - companies that aspire to solve some problem or to take advantage of any business opportunity - with a crowd that is prone to give ideas based on their knowledge, experience and wisdom. This paper makes a literature review on models of open innovation, crowdsourcing innovation, and technology and knowledge intermediaries, and discusses this new phenomenon as a way to leverage the innovation capacity of enterprises. Finally, the paper outlines a research design agendafor explaining crowdsourcing innovation brokering phenomenon, exploiting its players, main functions, value creation process, and knowledge creation in order to define a knowledge metamodel of such intermediaries.

Everis’ Internationalization strategy to the Nordic market

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Indoor location-based analytics systems: Portuguese market compettive assessment and entry procing strategy of BIPs' technology in Sonae Sierra Shopping malls stores

This project attempts to provide an in-depth competitive assessment of the Portuguese indoor location-based analytics market, and to elaborate an entry-pricing strategy for Business Intelligence Positioning System (BIPS) implementation in Portuguese shopping centre stores. The role of industry forces and company’s organizational resources platform to sustain company’s competitive advantage was explored. A customer value-based pricing approach was adopted to assess BIPS value to retailers and maximize Sonae Sierra profitability. The exploratory quantitative research found that there is a market opportunity to explore every store area types with tailored proposals, and to set higher-than-tested membership fees to allow a rapid ROI, concluding there are propitious conditions for Sierra to succeed in BIPS store’s business model in Portugal.

Internationalization strategy of Quinta dos Termos to Canada

Quinta dos Termos, a Portuguese winery, currently faces the need to expand internationally due to difficulties in distributing its current production in Portugal. This work project will analyze the firm’s characteristics, its development in the Portuguese market and the value proposition it offers. A market analysis will also be performed prior to evaluating the internationalization need of Quinta dos Termos. The Canadian market will be assessed as an opportunity to expand internationally by evaluating factors supporting that strategy; namely the market attractiveness, the most adequate implementation plan and a competitive analysis to better understand the success expectations in the market.

Internationalization strategy of reliance to Brazil

This Work Project was focused, firstly, in an internal analysis to assess the possible competitive advantage sources of the firm and to identify the key weakness that the firm should improve before advancing with the internationalization strategy. Completed the analysis was possible to verify that the source of sustainable competitive advantage of Relance is the use of specific raw materials and that its biggest weaknesses are the lack of capacity and the excessive dependence on key employees. Overall, it was possible to conclude that the firm is in position of competing in the international markets. Secondly, due to its crucial importance, the country selection was made with a deep objective analysis, resulting with the selection of Brazil as the country with the highest market potential. Regarding the strategy to actually enter in Brazil’s market, after the study of 12 modes of entry it was possible to conclude that there is no ideal mode. However, the study performed allowed to undertake the conclusion that in order to obtain long-term optimization on the process, the adaptation, to the firm´s situation, of the Uppsala model progressive stages is the ideal. At the course of this Work Project it was inferred that the critical success factors are the choice of the distributor and the promotion of Relance as a premium brand.

International Partnering strategy for e-learning provider in emerging economies: Evidence from East Africa learning institutions

International partnership has received growing interest in the literature during the past decades due to globalization, increased technological approaches and rapid changes in competitive environments. The study specifically determines the support provided by international partners on promotion of e-learning in East Africa, assess the motives of partner selection criteria, the determinants of selecting partners, partner models and partner competence of e-learning provider. The study also evaluates obstacles of e-learning partnering strategy in East Africa learning institutions. The research adopts a descriptive survey design. Target population involved East Africa learning institutions with a list of potential institutions generated from the Ministry of Higher Education database. Through a targeted reduction of the initial database, consisting of all learning institutions, both public and private, the study created a target sample base of 200 learning institutions. Structured questionnaires scheduled were used to collect primary data. Study findings showed the approach way East African communities in selecting their e-learning partners depend on international reputation of partners, partner with ability to negotiate with foreign governments, partner with international and local experiences, nationality of foreign partner and partners with local market knowledge.

Exporting Culture: a Requirement for Competitive Internationalization*

his paper proposes a concept of “culture for internationalization” and “exporting culture” –a highly relevant concept for developing countries’ firms that are likely to follow a gradualinternationalization process– based on the strong relationship binding the concept proposed to strategy and systemic competitiveness. These three items are paramount to Understand the conditions underlying internationalizationas it is characterized by particular traits that make it a key alternative for a firm’s growth and successful perdurability based on competitiveness. “Culture for internationalization” and its variation, “exporting culture”, overflow the conceptsof organizational or corporate culture and involve some major interaction among the micro, meso and macro levels of a national economy in order to operationalize strategies thatpromote such culture and assure successful firm and economy internationalization. Discussion remains open as to the concept and its applicability with the hope that it contributesto the understanding and creation of appropriate conditions for firms to be able to access international markets with greater advantage and generate as much benefit as possible totheir nations, particularly in developing countries. 

Corporate social responsibility in construction and engineering firms: key elements of effective strategy

Through multiple case studies of firms we argue that firms that have developed corporate responsibility strategies, albeit informally at first, do so by making intentional, informed and collective choices about CSR initiatives. More precisely, we point to the importance of considering corporate identity in making these choices and to the process of adaptive coordination, which includes both responding to and influencing the CSR environment. We conclude that CSR strategic landscape are determined more and more by the astute and careful management of a network of cooperative and competitive stakeholder interests which possess both tangible and intangible value to a firm.

To what extent are EU steel companies susceptible to competitive loss due to climate policy?

In recognition of their competitive vulnerability, a set of special rules have been devised for managing sectors such as steel and cement within the EU ETS. These rules basically seek to set sector specific performance benchmarks and reward top performers. However, the steel sector as a whole will receive the vast majority of its allowances for free in Phase III. Perceptions of competitive vulnerability have been largely based on inherently hypothetical analyses which rely heavily on counterfactual scenario and abatement cost estimates often provided by firms themselves. This paper diverges from these approaches by providing a qualitative assessment of the two key reasons underpinning the competitive vulnerability argument of the EU Steel Companies based on interviews and case study involving the three largest producers of steel within the EU – AcerlorMittal, Corus, and ThyssenKrupp. We find that these arguments provide only partial and weak justifications for competitive loss and discriminatory treatment in the EUETS. This strategy is difficult to counter by governments due to information asymmetry; and it appears to have proved very successful insofar as it has helped the industry to achieve free allocation in Phases I-III of EU ETS by playing up the risk of carbon leakage.

Sharing power? Prospects for a U.S. concert-balance strategy

The Pax Americana and the grand strategy of hegemony (or “Primacy”) that underpins it may be becoming unsustainable. Particularly in the wake of exhausting wars, the Global Financial Crisis, and the shift of wealth from West to East, it may no longer be possible or prudent for the United States to act as the unipolar sheriff or guardian of a world order. But how viable are the alternatives, and what difficulties will these alternatives entail in their design and execution? This analysis offers a sympathetic but critical analysis of alternative U.S. National Security Strategies of “retrenchment” that critics of American diplomacy offer. In these strategies, the United States would anticipate the coming of a more multipolar world and organize its behavior around the dual principles of “concert” and “balance,” seeking a collaborative relationship with other great powers, while being prepared to counterbalance any hostile aggressor that threatens world order. The proponents of such strategies argue that by scaling back its global military presence and its commitments, the United States can trade prestige for security, shift burdens, and attain a more free hand. To support this theory, they often look to the 19th-century concert of Europe as a model of a successful security regime and to general theories about the natural balancing behavior of states. This monograph examines this precedent and measures its usefulness for contemporary statecraft to identify how great power concerts are sustained and how they break down. The project also applies competing theories to how states might behave if world politics are in transition: Will they balance, bandwagon, or hedge? This demonstrates the multiple possible futures that could shape and be shaped by a new strategy. viii A new strategy based on an acceptance of multipolarity and the limits of power is prudent. There is scope for such a shift. The convergence of several trends—including transnational problems needing collaborative efforts, the military advantages of defenders, the reluctance of states to engage in unbridled competition, and hegemony fatigue among the American people—means that an opportunity exists internationally and at home for a shift to a new strategy. But a Concert-Balance strategy will still need to deal with several potential dilemmas. These include the difficulty of reconciling competitive balancing with cooperative concerts, the limits of balancing without a forward-reaching onshore military capability, possible unanticipated consequences such as a rise in regional power competition or the emergence of blocs (such as a Chinese East Asia or an Iranian Gulf), and the challenge of sustaining domestic political support for a strategy that voluntarily abdicates world leadership. These difficulties can be mitigated, but they must be met with pragmatic and gradual implementation as well as elegant theorizing and the need to avoid swapping one ironclad, doctrinaire grand strategy for another.

Business level strategy and performance: the moderating effects of environment and structure

Purpose – This study aims to examine the moderating effects of external environment and organisational structure in the relationship between business-level strategy and organisational performance. Design/methodology/approach – The focus of the study is on manufacturing firms in the UK belonging to the electrical and mechanical engineering sectors, and respondents were CEOs. Both objective and subjective measures were used to assess performance. Non-response bias was assessed statistically and appropriate measures taken to minimise the impact of common method variance (CMV). Findings – The results indicate that environmental dynamism and hostility act as moderators in the relationship between business-level strategy and relative competitive performance. In low-hostility environments a cost-leadership strategy and in high-hostility environments a differentiation strategy lead to better performance compared with competitors. In highly dynamic environments a cost-leadership strategy and in low dynamism environments a differentiation strategy are more helpful in improving financial performance. Organisational structure moderates the relationship of both the strategic types with ROS. However, in the case of ROA, the moderating effect of structure was found only in its relationship with cost-leadership strategy. A mechanistic structure is helpful in improving the financial performance of organisations adopting either a cost-leadership or a differentiation strategy. Originality/value – Unlike many other empirical studies, the study makes an important contribution to the literature by examining the moderating effects of both environment and structure on the relationship between business-level strategy and performance in a detailed manner, using moderated regression analysis.

Pro-competitive price beating guarantees: experimental evidence

We report experimental results on duopoly pricing with and without price beating guarantees (PBG). In two control treatments, price beating is either imposed as an industry-wide rule or offered as a business strategy. Our major finding is that when price beating guarantees are imposed as a rule or offered as an option, effective prices are equal to or lower than those in a baseline treatment in which price beating is forbidden. Also, when price beating is treated as a business strategy, less than 50% of subjects adopted the guarantee, suggesting that, subjects realize the pro-competitive effects of the guarantee.