In this module, you will learn what competitive advantage is and how companies can generate it with a good competitive strategy. Competitive advantage is the firm’s ability to generate greater Economic Value Created (EVC), which is the difference between the maximum price customers are willing to pay for the company’s products or services (WTP) and the firm’s cost of producing and selling the product (COST), than the competitor’s EVC. The company’s internal resources help create competitive advantage when deployed with an effective strategy to exploit opportunities in the external environment. You will learn that certain resources which are valuable, rare, inimitable, and for which the company is well organized to exploit, can lead to sustainable or longer-term competitive advantage – which in turn drives long-term profitability. Finally, you will learn how to analyze the value chain activities and understand how they help generate competitive advantage. At the end of the module, you will learn how to analyze internal resources, how companies generate sustainable competitive advantage, and understand the role of the value chain.

This module describes the different competitive strategies like differentiation, cost leadership, and best-cost strategy. You will understand how companies use these approaches to create a superior EVC and enjoy a sustainable competitive advantage. Differentiation strategies generally focus on increasing the WTP while Cost Leadership strategies stress reducing COST. Best-cost strategy aims to increase WTP and reduce COST simultaneously. You will also learn how to do the SWOT analysis by comparing external opportunities and threats with internal strengths and weaknesses. You will learn how a company can develop an optimal competitive strategy by matching internal strengths with external opportunities. Using a fictitious mini case, you will learn how the external analysis in Module 1 and internal analysis in Module 2 all come together to help companies identify an optimal competitive strategy. At the end of Module 3, you will learn the various competitive strategy alternatives available to companies, how they lead to competitive advantage, and how a company could identify the optimal competitive strategy for a given situation.

This module contains the summative course assessment that has been designed to evaluate your understanding of the course material and assess your ability to apply the knowledge you have acquired throughout the course. Be sure to review the course material thoroughly before taking the assessment.