How effective have competitors been in responding to the challenge posed by Dell’s advantage? How big is Dell’s remaining advantage?Explain

Assignment Questions and preparation guides

Q1) Is the personal computer industry profitable? If so (or if not), how and why?

•Conduct the 5 forces analysisto assess the profitability of the industry.

•Corresponding theories and materials: Chapter 2, Week3 slides Q2) Why has Dell been so successful in the PC industry?

•Identify the key sources of Dell’s competitive advantage by analyzing a value chain analysis proposed by M. Porter.

•What primary and/or supplementary activities and choices in a value chain diagram enable the firm to create more value than most rivals? How? Conduct a value chain analysis to support your argument.

 

•Corresponding theories and materials: Chapter 1 & 3, Week2 & 6slides/lecture video Q3)

Prior to the efforts by competitors to match Dell (1997-1998), how big was Dell’s competitive advantage? Specifically, compare Dell’s competitive advantage over Compaq.

•Identify Dell and Compaq’s business-level strategies(overall or focused cost leadership or differentiation) and explain why.

•To support your identificationon each company’s business-level strategy, include a comparative analysis by using the value creation framework (Dell vs. Compaq).

This value creation analysis requires you to conduct a thorough cost analysis (quantitative analysis) about the willingness of pay, price, and costsof each company.

•Does Dell’s have acompetitiveadvantage over Compaq?

•Hint: To conduct this analysis, rigorously use the financial information of the exhibits of the caseas well as the case text.

•Corresponding theories and materials: Chapter 5, Value creation framework (Week 6), Week6& 8 slides/lecture videos

Q4) Does Dell’s business-level strategy that you identified in Q3 take advantage of the opportunities and neutralize/reduce threats identified in the industry analysisof Q1? If so, how?

•Corresponding theories and materials: Chapter 2,3 & Chapter 5, Week3, 6& 8slides

Q5) How effective have competitors(IBM, Compaq, HP, and Gateway)been in responding to the challenge posed by Dell’s advantage? How big is Dell’s remaining advantage?

•Discuss how rivals reacted to Dell and evaluate how effective their reactions to catch Dell have been so far.

•Evaluate Dell’s competitiveposition using the Resource-based view (RBV)framework (valuable, rare, inimitable, sustainable?); also, evaluate their ability to sustain.

•Corresponding theories and materials:Chapter 2,3 & 5, Session 2,3,5, & 8 s

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