Aim: This study deals with two research questions: RQ1: What competitive advantages does DHL gain from external and internal factors? RQ2: What competitive disadvantage does DHL have? And what DHL can learn from analyzing competitive disadvantage? Method: primary data for this research has been mainly collected through interviews. Moreover, the official reports are used as secondary data to present the empirical situation of DHL. Conclusion: By concerning the external and internal factors of DHL, the SWOT analysis is conducted. The strength of DHL is customer satisfaction, green programme etc; weakness is price, liability insurance etc; opportunities are cooperation development, innovation etc; and threats are tough competitors. The strength and opportunities are regarded as DHL’ competitive advantages, while the weakness and threats are DHL’s competitive disadvantage that need to be fixed. Further study & Implication: In this thesis there is no information to indicate if DHL has any unmet needs, but it must be there. If DHL can enhance itself by providing unmet needs to customer, there is no doubt DHL would be more competitive in the 3PL industry. It is interesting to investigate more work on DHL unmet needs. This study contributes to the companies which plan to develop their competition from inside to outside in the market, especially in 3PL industry. This thesis gives authors deep insights into company success factors and suggestions for dealing with the problems which company may encounter.

ABSTRACT After Taiwan Air Cargo Terminal ¡]TACT¡^has walked through the monopoly, deregulation, privatization process, the services which they have been providing can't match the demand of modern cargo transportation, including of high-service-quality and high-speed-pass customs. The basic theory we adopted is¡§ Value Marketing Chains¡¨¡]Porter, 1985¡^and ¡§Competitive Advantages¡¨¡]Porter, 1990¡^in this study, its goals as follows: 1. To investigate the important service value factors of air cargo warehouse and difference range of service value after the privatization, 2. Discuss the correlation between service value and competitive advantages, 3. Use TACT cases to explain have an empirical on value chains and competitive advantages. This study is designed with retrospective-prospective due. By citing secondary data and in depth interviews offered from hardware etc. four key successful factors, by identifying, value delivery six step, and three stages cargo terminal organization type change, analyzed includes its value and four competitive advantages, example first-mover advantages etc. Furthermore, to design questionnaires and send 200 pieces surveying, get through depth interviews and data analysis, it show the four services value after privatization is high-degree and statistical significance expect hard-service . This study to codify a few consequence, example extend information service, quickly construct step, promote fixable service, aggrandize alliance, adjust contract and law, etc. keywords¡GPrivatization , Value chains , Value marketing chains , Competitive advantages..

­^¤åºK­n(Abstract) Since the government adopted the ¡§ Patience and Goodwill¡¨ policy to decelerate the ongoing industries¡¦ emigration, it inevitably results the deterioration on Taiwan political and economic environments and of being prone to the world factory ¡VChina. We could see that small to medium size companies are facing the dilemma- emigrating to China or stay. All industries in Taiwan have been forced to upgrade either for survive or business longevity This case study based on the competitive advantage theory and it evaluate the strategies incurred during small to medium size companies¡¦ internal upgrading; moreover, further identify its causes, directions and the condition within the whole process to find out the confronting and solution The goal is to find the way out, structure, and module. Herewith provide clear explanation and examination in order to further formulating for subject companies under circumstances of operating and business expansion. Meanwhile, the re-examination and adjustment of the formula either as being references and instruction for subject companies or fundament for future research after long-term operation. In this research analysis, (1) analyses external fastener industry environment and classify the success factors. (2) Analyses the subject company internal structure and characters to identify its key factor to success in the industry, (3) Marketing analysis. By applying the ¡§ Five forces framework and ¡§ SWOT¡¨ in order to- Firstly, realize the potential market opportunity and expanding space; Secondly, try to identify its core competency and competitive advantage. Thirdly, construct its sustainable competitive advantage to maintain its strength and finally lead to development and benefited prolong operation in the market place. The disclose of study: (1) Most of traditional industries have been on the progress of upgrading (2) Most of upgrading traditional manufacturers/suppliers have complete the basic operational upgrading. (3) Observing two tips from the smile curve, the early adopters have been benefited from upgrading changes. (4) The research subject ¡VS company, from a small size trading company to nowadays a multinational company, the continuous upgrading by adoption of positioning strategy is similarly develop toward two sides of the curve and the effects has been appealed. All above findings support there should have a model of best practice be generated for all the subject companies or similar industry reference Key words: sustainable competitive advantages, key success factors, key survival factor.

Taiwan¡¦s feed Industry contributes remarkably to the food supply chain in terms of animal protein production. However, after FMD breakout in 1997 and join WTO, feedmill companies with past glories start to erode their advantages in the industry ending up termination of business or struggling the competition. Competitive strategies of¡ucost leadership¡vand ¡udifferentiation¡v proposed by Michael Porter, the strategist, clearly pinpoint out the sustainability in competitive advantages. Those outstanding feedmill companies in different regions that can survive through the tough industry challenges and keep expanding their businesses in a successful manner coincide with these two criteria to compete in the industry. By analyzing the competitive advantage in theory and demonstrations, we also apply these ¡§cost leadership¡¨ and ¡§differentiation¡¨ criteria to the case study Greatwall Group as the suggestive sustainable competitive advantages strategies for the coming challenges in the feed industry. Competitive advantage rigidity could be lessened by meeting the ¡§cost leadership¡¨ criteria by reforming the purchasing model using e-commerce, and ¡§differentiation¡¨ strategy by 1) upgrading the nutrition formulation concept to modeling operation considering the integration advantages; 2) re-allocating the resources in service including research, quality control and vet diagnosis. In the mean times, management restructuring to reinforce the leadership and implementation performance will also be the inevitable requirements. Hopefully through the study of this case, it also sheds lights on other feedmill companies as a learning model.

Downhill skiing in the Swedish mountain range is an activity that increases in number of visitors for each year. It attracts a large amount of tourist that visit the destinations for different reasons. In order to succeed amongst the amount of destinations, it ́s necessary to differentiate themselves from competitors, and work out a clear strategy of attracting visitors to their own destination. The aim of this study is to examine how Swedish destinations that offers downhill skiing to tourist works to create attractiveness. This is studied with factors such as competitive advantages between destinations, loyalty towards the tourists, how the organization in the destination works with segments and target groups, and at last, how accessibility affects the number of visitors. This has been done through semistructured informant interviews, with managers in the area at four different destinations in the Swedish mountain range, together with literature studies of previous studies in the field. The result of the study tells us about how the destinations work and their strategies to expand and attract more visitors. Many of the destinations consider loyalty as one of the most important factors for a successful destination in the long run. The result also shows how competitive advantages are a fundamental part of differentiating themselves from others, to have a clear vision of what they can offer, facilitates efforts to attract visitors.

A análise de custos tradicional apenas estuda os impactos financeiros das alternativas de decisão. Mas dentro de um ambiente de concorrência ágil, globalizada e cada vez mais acirrada, a obtenção de vantagens competitivas sustentáveis torna-se fundamental e portanto, os elementos estratégicos devem ser agregados aos dados de custos. Os conceitos de dinamismo, vantagens competitivas, competências essenciais, acabam possibilitando novas concepções de arranjos organizacionais tais como as redes de cooperação de empresas denominadas Empresas Virtuais (EV), e se constituem em enfoques dos mais importantes. Também o conceito de estratégia, principalmente aplicado a gestão de custos/lucros é uma realidade trazida pelo novo contexto global. A aplicação da Gestão Estratégica de Custos (Strategic Cost Managemant - SCM) e de suas ferramentas está associada a todas as atividades das empresas, especialmente àquelas relacionadas com a gestão de custos e lucros. É objetivo deste trabalho estudar e discutir os critérios de funcionamento de um modelo de Gestão Estratégica de Custos e as possibilidades de sua aplicação em Empresas Virtuais. A meta é a obtenção de conclusões e conhecimento a cerca da administração de custos de uma maneira estratégica para o setor de Empresas Virtuais. / The tradicional cost analysis only studies the financial consequences of alternative decisions. But in a environment of agile, globalizated and even more stronger competion, the obtention of sustenable competitive advantages becomes fundamental, thus the strategic elements must be aggregated with cost information. With the arrival of globalization, comes a new way to see the firm's environment and to operate inside it. The concepts of dinamism, competitive advantage, core competences, make possible new structures, for example, the cooperation networks called virtual organizations, and they are answers to the new managemant challenges. The organizations with tecnology basis, just their agility, have a profile to actuate in virtual organizations. The concept of strategie, specially the one related with costs, is coming by the globalization too. The aplication of Strategic Cost Managemant (SCM) and their instruments is associated with all of the organization's activities, specially, the one related with cost managemant. It's convenient study and discuss the operation rules of a strategic cost managemant model and the possibilities of aplication in virtual organizations.

PROJECT OF FOOTBALL YOUTH ACADEMY OF SK SLAVIA PRAGUE Objectives: The main aim of this work is to build the project of football youth academy of SK Slavia Prague. This project is based on already applied and successful models of foreign youth academies. It is based on the potential of human resources, talent identification and development and regular improvement of material and immaterial conditions. Methods: As the methods were used case study and qualitative analysis. Case study method was applied for research of current trends and models used in the football environment and method of analysis in identifying the key pillars of effective and successful football youth academies. Results: The project of youth academy of football club SK Slavia Prague was built. Model of this project is based on the use of strategy, human resources, structure, reward system, the use of sports science, business processes, education, allocation of financial capital, innovations and projects and professional environment. Keywords: sport, development, talent, management, education, competitive advantages

Small business owners in the construction materials industry play a significant role in economic development through gross domestic product and employment. However, like other small business owners, many owners of small businesses in the construction materials industry close their businesses within 5 years. The purpose of this multiple case study grounded in the resource-based theory was to explore the strategies that owners of small businesses in the construction materials industry operating in Tanzania used to sustain business for longer than 5 years. Data were collected using semistructured interviews with 4 purposefully selected owners of small businesses in the construction materials industry and a review of daily sales records, weekly sales reports, and audited accounts. Member checking and triangulation were used to strengthen the credibility and trustworthiness of the interpretation of data and information. Data analysis involved coding and thematic analysis. Themes were categorized into business establishment strategies, customer satisfaction and retention strategies, and other sustainability strategies. Findings from this study may contribute to social change by providing information on mechanisms for improving business performance; reducing the risk of failure; and creating sustainable, better-paying jobs that can increase the well-being of business owners, employees, their families, and communities.

Information security technologists and business scholars are motivated by a desire to understand how and to what extent the application of IT within enterprise systems leads to improved and secured organizational performance. An effective relationship between business and IT professionals is a primary determinant of success in gaining business advantage through the enterprise system. As business innovation has relied increasingly on partnerships between business and IT professional, a different perspective of how IT professionals view their organizational contributions was needed for organizations to remain competitive. Business knowledge is essential if IT professionals are to create linkages with other organizational units and have a wider perspective about business objectives, thus achieving fit between IT and organizational strategies. Organizations have started responding to this challenge by demanding more business acumen in their IT staff. The focus of this study is on the knowledge that is beyond that of independent business and IT only domain knowledge of information security. Therefore, technical areas of knowledge, such as hardware and software, all of which are closely associated with IT skills, are not discussed in this thesis. This is not to declare that such knowledge is not important. Clearly technical knowledge is part of the IT professional's overall information security technology expertise, but this study is about the organization proficiency of business and the IT professional, and is therefore interested in what enables business and IT professionals to apply their business domain and technical knowledge in ways that are beneficial to the organization and to act cooperatively with their customers and business partners. The purpose of this study is to employ the triangulation method to identify the theoretical links and empirically examine the association between business and IT perspective of information security. An important contribution of this study is the identification of business and IT perspectives on information security technology. By establishing the link between business and IT, the study focuses and evaluates Virtual Private Network (VPN) as an information security technology to find out if VPN can secure and gain competitive advantage by partisan business process and organization performance. This study articulates distinctive characteristics of Virtual Private Network and management processes that extend the range of applicability across diverse business segments. It distinguishes between business and IT and explains why the exploitation of a complementary set of related information security entities (such as VPN) across multiple functions create competitive vi advantages even across a diverse set of businesses that have limited opportunity to exploit business process and organization performance. The most important direct predictor of this study is a high level of communication between business and IT. However, one cannot mandate meaningful communication between individuals. IT people have to earn the right to play a meaningful role in management forums. Based on the findings from this study, one important way for an IT person to be heard is for him/her to devote the time necessary to create competitive advantage and develop shared domain knowledge, the most influential construct in the research model. An IT person needs to understand the leverage points of the industry, the history and current issues of the business units, and to learn to apply business oriented objectives in the application of technology to business problems. This change in view would help focus their attention on security technology and ideas that could produce the most benefit and create competitive advantage, rather than those that offer the most technical promise.

<p>Strategy and IT research has been extensively discussed during the past 40 years. Two scientific disciplines Management Science (MS) and Management Information Science (MIS) investigate the importance of IT as a competitive factor. However, although much research is available in both disciplines, it is still difficult to explain how to manage IT to enable competitive advantages. One reason is that MS research focuses on strategies and competitive environments but avoids the analysis of IT. Another reason is that MIS research focuses on IT as a competitive factor but avoids the analysis of the competitive environment. Consequently, there is a gap of knowledge in the understanding of the strategic management of information technology (SMIT).</p><p>The strategic analysis of IT as a competitive factor is important for achieving the competitive advantages of IT. This thesis explores factors related to strategy and IT that should be considered for the strategic analysis of IT as a competitive factor, and proposes a framework for SMIT. The research is conducted by means of a qualitative analysis of theoretical data from the disciplines of MS and MIS. Data is explored to find factors related to SMIT.</p><p>The results of the analysis show that the strategic management of information technology is a continuous process of evaluation, change, and alignment between factors such as competitive environment, competitive strategies (business and IT strategies), competitive outcome, and competitive factors (IT). Therefore, the understanding of the relationships between these factors is essential in order to achieve the competitive advantages of using IT.</p><p>This thesis contributes to strategic management research by clarifying the relationships between strategic management, competitive environment, and IT as competitive factor into a holistic framework for strategic analysis. The framework proposed is valuable not only for business managers and for IT managers, but also for academics. The framework is designed to understand the relationship between competitive elements during the process of strategic analysis prior to the formulation of competitive strategies. Moreover, it can also be used as a communication tool between managers, in order to achieve alignment among company strategies. To academics, this thesis presents the state-of-the-art related to strategic management research; it can also be a valuable reference for strategic managers, as well as researchers interested in the strategic management of IT.</p> / Report code: LiU-Tek-Lic.2006:53.