Sustainable competitive advantage (SCA)

January 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Imagine that you are one of the best in your class. You are smart, knowledgeable and pleasing in nature. Thus you are a top grader and are liked by everyone. Thats your competitive advantage.

Now imagine you are promoted to the next class or you are transferred to another school . Do you think  you would be the best in this one too? will everyone like you here? Well, if you have learnt something applicable in your previous school and it is an asset in this one too than no doubt you would again be a class leader. After all, who doesn’t like a charming person. Thats Sustainable competitive advantage :) you can achieve and maintain a competitive position over a given period of time. Thus in  business, a sustainable competitive advantage is an element of business or marketing strategy that provides a meaningful advantage over both existing and future competitors.

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Adaptation level theory

January 4, 2010 By 2 Comments

Also called AL theory or the theory of adaptation level

A theory positing that an individual’s reference point for subjective judgments regarding particular classes of stimuli is determined by the individual’s prior exposure to such stimuli as well as recollections of past judgments of similar stimuli.

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Adaptation

January 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The process or strategy of adapting or tailoring an otherwise standardized product or service offering to meet the needs and preferences of a particular market or set of consumers, where such markets and consumers are typically examined and managed within an international marketing context.

Actor–observer difference

January 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The phenomenon where the attributed causes of an individual’s action(s) tend to systematically differ depending on whether one is the actor or an observer. More specifically, an observer tends to attribute an actor’s behavior to the actor’s inherent personality,whereasthe actor tends to attribute his/her behavior to situational factors.

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Acquiescence response set

January 4, 2010 By 1 Comment

A form of bias involving a consistent individual tendency to agree with statements such as attitude statements regardless of the content or to consistently answer yes/no questions either in the affirmative (yes) or in the negative (no) irrespective of a question’s content.

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Achievement motivation theory

January 4, 2010 By 1 Comment

The Achievement motivation theory relates personal characteristics and background to a need for achievement and the associated competitive drive to meet standards of excellence.

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Accelerator principle

January 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Also called the accelerator effect, acceleration principle, or acceleration effect

The idea or theory that aggregate net investment by firms in an industry is dependent on firms’ expectations about changes in outputs such as sales, profits, and/or cash flow, and where such a relationship has the effect of amplifying further the magnitude of changes in firms’ demands on suppliers.

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Absorptive Capacity

January 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A conceptual term characterizing a firm’s ability to recognize value in information arising outside the firm, internalize and assimilate such information, and apply it for commercial purposes.

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Absolute cost advantage

January 3, 2010 By 1 Comment

Absolute cost advantage refers to the competitive advantage which a firm has because it is able to achieve and maintain a very low cost of operations as a result of which its product and services cost lesser which becomes a highly competitive entry barrier for a new entrant.

Definition -

A concept referring to the beneficial state where an incumbent firm is able to achieve and sustain lower average total costs for its products or services relative to that achievable by newer entrants.

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Above the line marketing

January 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Above-the-line activity in marketing refers to marketing practices making use of the mass media where, given a firm’s use of an advertising agency, the agency would make a commission on advertisements which are placed in media including television, newspapers, billboards, radio, magazines, and cinema, and where the commission charged by the advertising agency typically appears ‘above-the-line’ on the ad agency’s bill to the firm.

Thus, Marketing comprised of activity that, traditionally, entails commission charges by advertising agencies which, mainly, comprises mass media advertising is said to be Above the line marketing.

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