Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage
The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm has become a prominent management theory that firms can use to analyze resources as potential sources of competitive advantage. Theorists have suggested sponsorship of sport properties as one such resource, yet specific cases of sponsorship's role in a firm's achievement of a sustained advantage over competitors have yet to be explored. This article illuminates the case of Visa's longstanding global sponsorship of the Olympic Games, which was initiated and leveraged to counteract competitor American Express' advantage with global business travelers. Evidence is presented that supports Visa's achievement of a competitive advantage during the term of the sponsorship. The case is then used to develop a conceptual model based on the RBV to identify the key characteristics of sponsored properties capable of assisting the sponsoring firm in achieving a sustained competitive advantage. From a managerial perspective, the model is designed to assist marketing managers tasked with the identification and evaluation of potential sponsorship properties.
Authors :: Jonathan A. Jensen, Joe B. Cobbs, Brian A. Turner
Swot Analysis of "Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage" written by Jonathan A. Jensen, Joe B. Cobbs, Brian A. Turner includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sponsorship Advantage facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competitive strategy, Marketing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sponsorship Advantage, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sponsorship Advantage operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sponsorship Advantage
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Sponsorship Advantage
Strengths Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sponsorship Advantage in Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Sponsorship Advantage is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Sponsorship Advantage are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Sponsorship Advantage in the sector have low bargaining power. Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Sponsorship Advantage to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Sponsorship Advantage is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Jonathan A. Jensen, Joe B. Cobbs, Brian A. Turner can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Sponsorship Advantage is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Sponsorship Advantage in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Sponsorship Advantage is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Sponsorship Advantage has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Sponsorship Advantage is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Sponsorship Advantage
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Sponsorship Advantage does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Sponsorship Advantage is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Sponsorship Advantage has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Sponsorship Advantage has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Sponsorship Advantage, firm in the HBR case study Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Sponsorship Advantage supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Sponsorship Advantage vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Need for greater diversity
– Sponsorship Advantage has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Sponsorship Advantage needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage, in the dynamic environment Sponsorship Advantage has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Sponsorship Advantage has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Sponsorship Advantage products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Sponsorship Advantage needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage, it seems that the employees of Sponsorship Advantage don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jonathan A. Jensen, Joe B. Cobbs, Brian A. Turner suggests that, Sponsorship Advantage is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Sponsorship Advantage is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage are -
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Sponsorship Advantage in the consumer business. Now Sponsorship Advantage can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– Sponsorship Advantage can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Sponsorship Advantage can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Sponsorship Advantage operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Sponsorship Advantage can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Sponsorship Advantage can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Sponsorship Advantage can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Sales & Marketing segment.
Buying journey improvements
– Sponsorship Advantage can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Loyalty marketing
– Sponsorship Advantage has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Sponsorship Advantage to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Sponsorship Advantage to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Sponsorship Advantage to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Sponsorship Advantage is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Sponsorship Advantage can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Sponsorship Advantage to increase its market reach. Sponsorship Advantage will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sponsorship Advantage can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Threats Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sponsorship Advantage is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Sponsorship Advantage in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Sponsorship Advantage can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage, Sponsorship Advantage may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Sponsorship Advantage in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Sponsorship Advantage
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Sponsorship Advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Sponsorship Advantage high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Sponsorship Advantage can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Sponsorship Advantage with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Sponsorship Advantage needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Sponsorship Advantage can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Sponsorship Advantage needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
Feel free to connect with us if you need business research.
You can download Excel Template of Case Study Solution & Analysis of Evaluating Sponsorship through the Lens of the Resource-Based View: The Potential for Sustained Competitive Advantage
