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1. What are the sources of Wal-Mart’s competitive advantage in discount retailing? Wal-Mart core competency is its cost leadership, its ability to fast and effectively response to change and the ability to innovate. These competitive advantage enabled Wal-Mart to consistently outperform Kmart and other discount retailer. Wal-Mart successfully utilized its resources and capabilities to build up this competitive advantage. Since it is a complex harmonization of technology, distribution and organizational culture, the competitive advantage is difficult for competitors to imitate. I will first discuss the resources Wal-Mart possessed and then explore how Wal-Mart utilized the resource to develop capability thus formed competitive advantage. The resources of Wal-Mart included: a. Tangible resource: The company’s financial position is very strong. Balance sheet is solid. The company can finance the investment through internally generated fund and borrowing. This gave Wal-Mart a positive position to continue its aggressive expansion and acquisition. On the physical resources side, Wal-Mart operated 4,414 stores in 50 states of United States and internationally. The expansion of new stores and the remodeling of existing stores provided the company foundation for future growth. The integrated inventory control system brought Wal-Mart significant advantage over other retailers. It controlled inventory to a very low level. b. Intangible resource: Wal-Mart was recognized as the best retailer in the industry.
Approximate Word count = 845
Approximate Pages = 3.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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