Competitive edge: A strategic management model

Abstract

Abstract To assess a firm's strategic position, its managers must collect and interpret data regarding the firm itself, its competitors, its stakeholders, and the industry. Having implement a strategy based on that information, the managers further must measure that strategy's effect. The “competitive-edge model” presented in this article provides a series of questions to guide the strategic decision-making and data-collection process so that managers gain an explicit picture of what is happening with their firm, their competitors, and the industry. Equipped with the requisite information, managers can develop marker and non-marker strategies by matching internal resources with external opportunities. Market-based strategies seek to provide an advantage for the firm over its competitors by appealing to specific customer attributes. Non-market strategies take into account aspects of the environment not directly related to customers, including the actions of government, shareholders, and special interest groups.