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The Cheng Ching Lake is a reservoir. It functions not only as a water supplier, but also as a scenic spot. It used to be one of the top three scenic spots in Taiwan. However, it has gradually lost its competitiveness with environmental change. And its tourists has also decreased with year, which has resulted in deficits of earning and prosperity. This study probes into the competitive advantage of the Cheng Ching Lake scenic spot according to the Resource-Based Theory. The unique competitiveness of general enterprises comes from two complementary sources-- the resources and the competencies in the enterprises. Since it is easier for an enterprise to control and manage its resources and competencies, the two factors are more suitable being as references and indicators for a company to decide on its tactics of development. Therefore, an enterprise should make good use of its resources in advantage and even its core resources in order to make profits and maintain its substainable competitive advantage. This thesis adopted qualitative methods and conducted in-depth interviews with the administrator of the Cheng Ching Lake scenic spot, superiors in authorities concerned, scholars, and experts. After discussing with them the effects that tangible assets, intangible assets, human resources and capabilities have on competitive advantage, the results¡GThe core resource of the Cheng Ching Lake scenic spot is ¡§its water resource and ecology¡¨ that is unique, specific, and imperfectly imitable, which shape the Cheng Ching Lake¡¦s competitiveness. As for the core competence, the management ability, age, quality, professional training, adjustment ability of its employees lack in competitiveness, the Cheng Ching Lake scenic spot does not have core competence . Based on the above findings, this study gets some suggest to development strategies for the Cheng Ching Lake senic spot as follows: 1.Using the differentiation to separate the market. 2.Selecting a specific theme for further development. 3.Modifying after a whole plan, and to run the business with each section separated for different usage. 4.Adopting alliance strategy to promote its competitiveness. 5.Collecting cleaning fees from people doing morning exercise to compensate for the loss in profits.

Abstract The situation of the world varies from minute to minute, and the market of the traditional industry changes fast also. Many parameters occur which challenge and strike against the highly polluted, low profit textile and dyeing-finishing industry. For instance, the issue of the global warming keeps spreading influence the whole world such as American and Europe to place more attention on the ecological environment. Second, the lack of the energy and natural resources raise the prime cost. Next, the opportunity the World Trade Organization (WTO) gives to the trade market forms a more competitive international relationship around the world. The difficulties and the threat the textile and dyeing-finishing industry meets urge the industry to find their way out. They should analyze the industrial structure and the international benefits, and find an alternative proposal and key success factor to create the competitive edge of their own. Furthermore, the best choice among all the solutions is that the industry should catch the world wave, producing environmentally friendly green product and devoting to lower the emission of the carbon dioxide (CO2¡^ during the producing process. This decision can not only lower the prime cost and earn more profits for the enterprise but also promote the corporate image. Moreover, when talking to establish the goal of reforming strategy, the enterprise should strengthen the integration of the inner and outer resource. Through the cluster model of the industrial structure they can support each other, forming the best green supply chain. Only through the above procedures can the enterprise maintain their long-lasting competitive advantage. Therefore, the paper is going to focus on the textile and dyeing-finishing industry in terms of : (1) the difficulties of the industry. (2) the turning point for the industry- the green supply chain. (3) the key success factor of the reforming strategy. (4) the perspective and opinion from experts and scholars. (5) the implication and conclusion.

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<p>Purpose: The purpose is to gain a better understanding in how a construction com-pany like Held & Francke calculate the price of an offer for a building project and what role cost calculation, in relation to quality and time, plays in achieving competi-tive advantage.</p><p>Method: Since the method of cost calculation only was investigated at one company we found it suitable for us to use a holistic single case study as the research strategy. The method used in this study is a qualitative research method since our empirical data, to a large extent, is based on interviews. Further, because our study is of a quali-tative nature, we have chosen to perform semi-structured interviews.</p><p>Conclusions:</p><p>After examining Held & Francke we found that they manage very well to use some of the theoretical methods for cost calculations. Their main method of calculation is ABC, where the project is broken down into smaller work steps. Cost calculation plays a large role as a competitive advantage for Held & Francke. Cost is the sole as-pect where Held & Francke has full control and providing competitive project prices therefore becomes imperative in order to generate sales. With the focus on costs the cost calculation becomes an important role in achieving a competitive advantage.</p>

In business environments characterized by technological change and rapid imitation, firms must continually innovate and identify new opportunities in order to remain competitive. This study investigates how external actors provide firms with innovative opportunities, ideas, and solutions. Specifically, it examines how firms are influenced by being approached by external innovators who “pitch” ideas for new products that they want to commercialize in cooperation with the firm. Conceptually, the study analyzes firms as magnets to which ideas and resources from outside the firm are attracted.Employing a multiple case study design of Swedish and U.S.companies, the thesis reveals that a firm’s capacity for innovation and exploration of new opportunities is partly shaped by its ability to attract ideas and inventions from the outside environment. It also demonstrates that firms that are particularly attractive to external innovators are in a favorable position to identify and act on strategic opportunities and threats that emerge in their competitive environments. The findings of the study suggest that in order to support their innovation and strategy creation processes, firms should work to stimulate inflows of externally developed ideas and inventions. This involves building a reputation of being trustworthy and receptive to external ideas, as well as broadcasting innovation projects and strategies so that external actors can easily understand how their ideas and inventions might fit in to the firm’s innovation projects and strategies.

Much research show that strategies of personalization aiming to meet customers' needs and behaviors are an important aspect to influence the competitiveness within an industry. However there is a gap of studies on how airlines use customer involvement for creating personalized strategies in the field of e-commerce while enhancing the competitive advantage. This study is aims to describe how airlines can create personalized e-commerce strategies by considering the customer involvement in order to enhance their competitiveness. In conjunction with this first assumption the study aims to demonstrate how airlines could increase their customer loyalty by implementing the concept of customer relationship management (CRM) within their e-commerce strategies. A theoretical framework has been developed derived from a review of the existing literature in order to describe how airlines can use personalization as a strategy in e-commerce to develop a competitive advantage.  A qualitative multiple-case study has been chosen for this study. Three companies have been studied within the European airline industry and have been led by a deductive approach which will aim to investigate the theoretical framework.The analysis of empirical findings revealed some relevant conclusions, which can bring value to the research area, and also to the practice. The main findings show that airlines are involving customers into their e-commerce strategies in various forms and different levels regarding a specific project. One of the major result of this thesis is that airlines seem to focus on point of contacts with customers external to the e-commerce platform.

Competitive advantage has received considerable attention. Few studies have however chosen a holistic approach taking multiple aspects and organisational levels into consideration. This research has the goal of filling parts of this void. The aim is to deepen the understanding of competitive advantage in the service industry by analysing how alignment of strategy, control and organisation structure on multiple organisational levels impacts competitive advantage of a service company over a long period of time. Based on the idea of multiple factors and the importance of connecting different levels with each other, including production level, a framework for the service industry is developed based on the ideas of Nilsson and Rapp (2005). The framework is used to analyse the rich data gathered in a longitudinal case study of an insurance group embracing the environmental changes and the choices taken as well as the resulting competitive position. According to the analysis, the Insurance Group is not ensuring an overall coordination of its activities, although there is a fit among some dimensions. The level of misalignment increased over the time, as a result of changes in the environment and less than consistent management decisions. Although the Insurance Group has been profitable and increased its market share since its foundation, the competitive advantage, measured as performance compared to market average, decreased. The declining performance combined with the increasing level of misalignment supports the assumed importance of reaching a consistent positioning among strategy, control and organisational structure. It can therefore be presumed that strategic congruence, integrated control and coherent organisational structure influence competitive advantage. However, due to the semi-protected insurance market the effects are weaker than they probably would have been in a more competitive and unpredictable market. The Insurance Group inherited valuable and unique resources at its foundation. Their apparent stable value ensures the Insurance Group a competitive advantage, although no activities are undertaken to strengthen or even to maintain them. It can therefore be concluded that an integrated approach of competitive advantage where both positioning framework and valuable resources are used as complementarities seems to be beneficial when competitive advantage is studied. / Strategy, Control and Competitive Advantage