The effect of liberalization and the great improvement of the internet using caused a huge impact in global airline industry which has brought more opportunities to airline¡¦s company but fallow with keen competition. Using China Airlines as research object by using a detailed case study method to analyze its changing of resources to achieve competitive advantage since the rapid changing of the environment and understand how China Airlines changes its worse resource become a superior resource to gain competitive advantage. Airlines firm resources can be conveniently classified into four categories: physical asset, intangible asset, human capital resources and orginazation capabilities. After the analyzing, this study found that firstly, after China Airlines no more a monopoly, its core resources turned into a weak resources comparing with competitor. Second, airlines industry¡¦s resources indeed changed or adjusted due to the changing of the environment. Third, the resources of airlines industry can be imitable and substitutabile easily. Therefore, human resource can be the most potential resource which establishes sustainable competitive advantage and make differentiation. Forth, all the resources of the airline¡¦s company are core resources however one resource itself is impossible to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, only the fit and the connection of the resources can become sustainable competitive advantage. Finally, unique history conditions help airline industry to gain more resources and become more advantage than competitor. Key words: Resource, Competitive advantage, Sustainable competitive advantage, Airline industry

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No / According to annual reports of European and North American ski resort corporations, winter sports destinations are facing stagnating markets and at the same time challenges in the management of environmentally sensitive mountainous areas and villages. The survival and development of winter sports destinations are to a large extent centred around strategies for creating competitive advantage and at the same time meeting the criteria of sustainable tourism laid down by the WTO. In this paper, performance on these two dimensions is combined into the concept of strategic performance. Sustained value creation is suggested as a goal of strategic performance in winter sports destinations.Two new models related to the strategic analysis of winter sports destinations are developed. The first is a suggested configuration of value creation in winter sports destinations¿the ¿value fan¿¿and the second is a conceptual organisational model providing a framework for analysis at strategic level of such destinations. The models have emerged from examining the central body of literature in the field of strategic management. Development of the models is part of ongoing research into what kind of organisational structure of winter sports destinations will lead to superior performance in terms of strategic success. Here the concepts of the ¿community model¿ and the ¿corporate model¿ of destination management are introduced.

Many organisations use strategic management as an imperative to gain competitive advantages. Theorists have not been able to ascertain whether prescriptive or emergent strategic approaches will be most suitable within an organisational climate for sustaining these competitive advantages. The notion of creativity has been identified as a source of competitive advantage that organisations may make use of within their strategic frameworks. However, within the organisational climate, there may be various barriers to creativity that will impede performance outcomes, efficiency and potential competitive advantage for an organisation. The study concerns itself m d y with an investigation into the strategic and organisational climates within selected higher education institutions in South Africa, as these institutions are in need of an assessment regarding potential sources of competitive advantage, in order to survive. The imperative to remain competitive is primarily due to the turbulent and changeable environments that these institutions find themselves in. This instability has occurred as a result of various changes in higher education due to the merging of several higher education institutions and the changes in the configuration of others. The study has shown that creativity is a source of competitive advantage. This was done by determining which barriers to creativity were present within the organisational climates of the selected institutions, as well as which strategic management approaches were being employed by the said institutions. The information obtained from the data gathered was compared to two competitive advantage measures (throughput and research output rates) of those higher education institutions. Three pivotal questions were asked and answered by the study in this regard. What are the prevalent prescriptive strategy dimensions and processes being employed by selected South African public higher education institutions? What are the prevalent creativity barrier dimensions that exist with selected public higher education institutions in South Africa? What relationships can be observed between the prescriptive strategy dimensions, the creativity barrier dimensions and the organisational competitive advantage performance output dimensions of throughput rate and research output in selected public South African higher education institutions? Non probability, judgment sample was obtained from four selected higher education institutions located in the Gauteng province in South Africa during the latter half of 2004. The survey requested certain biographical information on respondents (who had to fulfill the criteria of being full-time academic employees working for the institution in question), information on the strategic climate and barriers to creativity with the organisational climate. The last section of the questionnaire contained open-ended questions. Data on the throughput and research output rates of the institutions was obtained separately from the South African Department of Education (DOE), and correlated against the data obtained from the questionnaire. The questionnaire was testing for eight pre-determined creativity factors within the organisational climate (identified from the literature review and previous studies), and a separate dimension of prescriptive strategic planning. Overall only five of the creativity barriers were found to be most predominant within the selected higher education institutions, namely: Insufficient Resources; Lack of Team Unity; Lack of Organisational Support; Organisational Hindrances and Workload pressure. The factors were compared to the measures of competitive advantage and it was determined that there was a positive correlation between a higher prevalence of barriers and a lower performance output, which indicated that creativity could be identified as a source of competitive advantage within those institutions. This lent evidence to support the initial, first hypothesis of the study. Furthermore, it was discovered that those institutions that were utilising prescriptive strategic management approaches were more inched to achieve higher performance in terms of their throughput rates. Refuted the second hypothesis of the study that was advocating that emergent strategy was more likely to result in competitive advantage. More education institutions, known for their typically bureaucratic approaches might be more able to utilise formal procedures to obtain increased competitive advantage than utilising a more informal, emergent approach, as academic employees might more freely be able to explore creative alternatives under the security of prescriptive strategic approaches. It is likely that any organisation would wish to improve their competitive performance in order to be more effective. Higher education institutions also need to be concerned about their performance in order to continue operating effectively. It is necessary, then for those higher education institutions, to take note of these potential barriers to creativity with their organisational climates, which were highlighted by the study and to proactively remove them to ensure they remain competitive into the future. In addition, these institutions should consider which strategic management approaches they are currently utilising and streamline them to cement the competitive advantage. It was advocated that South African higher education institutions should be adopting formalised strategic management approaches in this regard. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Management))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

O cenário de competição empresarial exige das empresas diversas posturas diferenciadoras, dentre estas, posturas que sejam capazes de desenvolver vantagens competitivas sustentáveis. Como resultado de sua busca pela competitividade, as empresas procuram desenvolver suas competências essenciais por meio das pessoas que a compõe. Dentre as formas de desenvolvimento organizacional, solidificou-se a realização de treinamentos no ambiente das corporações. O pensamento científico relacionado ao tema, observa a necessidade de que o treinamento esteja alinhado às estratégias da empresa e que seja capaz de produzir resultados. Surge a necessidade de se avaliar sistematicamente o treinamento e em especial seus resultados. Com o objetivo de delinear as características particulares do fenômeno, este estudo analisou as dimensões qualitativas de um programa de treinamento o MBA (Master in Business Administration) Gestão Pública realizado no Banco do Brasil. A metodologia utilizada foi o estudo de caso, valendo-se da realização de grupos focais, de entrevistas semiestruturadas e de análise de dados secundários para a obtenção de evidências que ofereceram elementos de análise do treinamento realizado. Conclui-se que o programa produziu resultados no contexto da Diretoria de Governo do Banco do Brasil, tendo atingido os objetivos de proposição do treinamento. Foram estudados quatro modelos de avalaição de treinamento, tendo sido defindo o Modelo MAIS como adequado para explorar o curso estudado. A avaliação de treinamento delineou o quanto o programa atendeu ao modelo, tendo sido observada a presença maioria dos parâmetros e ausência de alguns outros. Observou-se resultados objetivos do curso, como o planejamento de produtos e o dimensionamento de estratégias organizacionais. Muitos dos resultados observados encontram-se no contexto de outras ações organizacionais da Diretoria estudada e não podem ser apontados como resultado do treinamento, por outro lado o treinamento é apontado como um dos elementos de contexto que contribuíram com este resultado. Foram identificados ainda resultados que podem ser classificados como fonte de Vantagem Competitiva Sustentável da Diretoria de Governo do Banco do Brasil e que estão associados ao programa MBA Gestão Pública. / The competitive business environment demands differentiation postures from every company, especially, postures that are capable to develop sustainable competitive advantages. In consequence of their search for competitiveness, companies look for developing their essential abilities through the people who compose it. Amongst different forms of organizational development, training becomes a frequent practice in companies environment. The scientific thought related to the subject emphasizes a necessity of alignment between training and companies strategies, and the capability of producing results. Systematic evaluation of the training and especially its results becomes necessary. In order to delineate the particular characteristics of the phenomenon, this study analyzed qualitative dimensions of a training program called MBA Public Management implemented at Banco do Brasil. The methodology was a case study, based on focus groups, half-structuralized interviews, and secondary data analysis to attain evidences that offered analysis elements of the studied training. It is concluded that the program produced results in the context of the Government Board of the Banco do Brasil, and reached the proposal objectives of the training. Four models of evaluation of training had been studied, and the Model MAIS was considered adjusted to explore the studied course. The training evaluation delineated how much of the model was attended by the program it was observed the presence of the majority of the parameters and absence of some others. It was also observed objective results of the course, for instance the planning of products and the sizing of organizational strategies. There were many of the observed results, which are related to other organizational actions of the studied Board, and they cannot be pointed as resulted from the training. However, the training is pointed as one of the context elements that had contributed with these results. It was also identified results that can be classified as sources of Sustainable Competitive Advantage of the Government Board of the Banco do Brasil, which are associated to MBA Public Management program.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Management))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

Purpose: The main research objective is to identify how an organization is using a CSRstrategy to gain a competitive advantage Method: The selected research method is a descriptive method followed by an inductive one.Secondary data has been collected from books at Halmstad University’s Library and academicjournals and other articles founded in the University’s Databases. Primary data has beenobtained through an interview carried out with the head manager of Coop Halmstad, JorgenWestman. Theoretical framework: We firstly define in details the concepts of Corporate SocialResponsibility and its three aspects which are Economic, Social and Environmental. Thedescription of the concept of competitive advantage and how to obtain a sustainablecompetitive advantage. Finally, food retailers are defined. Conclusion: A summary of the findings obtained from our study is posted. Another summaryto point out the bounds between corporate social responsibility and competitive advantage.The limitations of the study as well as some suggestions for further researches are added inthis section

Guanxi plays an important role in Chinese entrepreneurial networking activities, especially for micro entrepreneurial firms in China. Due to limited information and resources available to micro firms, micro firms are more dependent on entrepreneurs’ guanxi networks to get access to the necessary resources. Previous literatures have particularly discussed the impacts of guanxi networks for foreigners successfully doing business in China. Nevertheless, there are scant literatures that study on the role of the guanxi in Chinese entrepreneurship. The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of the role of guanxi in Chinese entrepreneurship. This study employs the relevant guanxi concepts, Western social capital theory, and network-based entrepreneurship as the main conceptual framework to examine how Chinese entrepreneurs utilize their guanxi networks during the development of micro firms. Furthermore, this study is based on ten case studies in China. Empirical Data are collected from semi-structured interviews with ten Chinese entrepreneurs in micro firms. The results show that guanxi networks are highly important for Chinese entrepreneurs to develop their business. Firstly, Chinese entrepreneurs make use of different guanxi governance mechanisms--qinqing, renqing and jiaoqing to acquire different information and resources for the development of their firms. The obtained information and resources constitute the social capital, which can be used to complement insufficient capital within the firms. Secondly, Chinese entrepreneurs intentionally enlarge their guanxi network size to obtain more resources. Moreover, Chinese entrepreneurs benefit from strong guanxi ties and closure network structures to obtain the cohesive social capital. While Chinese entrepreneurs gain greater benefits from weak guanxi ties and spare network structures for acquiring additional information, resources and business opportunities. Thirdly, guanxi-networking activities are different from Western social networking activities, as guanxi-networking activities put more emphasize on keeping harmony and mutual reciprocity. Furthermore, Chinese entrepreneurs are proactive to build and maintain guanxi networks through various approaches for their business development. Lastly, even though guanxi networks play important roles in the development of micro entrepreneurial firms, they cannot be sustainable competitive advantage in the long term. Indeed, the core competences such as high quality of products and services, advanced technologies and marketing channels could be sustainable competitive advantages for the entrepreneurial firms in today’s increasingly fierce competitive market.

In order to stay sustainably competitive and provide low cost, high quality products safely and on schedule, China Steel Group must depend on a highly automated and sophisticated electric control system for dynamic and optimized control. Therefore, the promotion of group synergy as well as integration and management of the resources of China Steel Group¡¦s electric control system become the main purpose of this study. This study is based on resource-based theory, Collis & Montgomery's strategy and the literatures on Group Company¡¦s management. Management system of Formosa Plastics Group, three Japanese and one Korean Steel Groups were also investigated as benchmarking practices. Following issues have been analyzed via 4 experts¡¦ interviews and 135 questionnaires: 1).Core electric control resources with sustainable competitive advantage of China Steel Group, 2).The electric control resources¡¦ integration and management system of China Steel Group, 3).The necessity and direction to establish China Steel Group¡¦s general management office. Findings and conclusions of this study are shown as follows: 1) . Core electric control resources with sustainable competitive advantage of China Steel Group: a. Expertise is the most important core resources of electric control system; process and operation domain knowledge, process control maintenance knowledge and basic engineering of electric control project are the most sustainable competitive advantage in daily business operation. b. Process domain knowledge in rolling mill is the most valuable and difficult electric core resource and need to be enhanced first. c. The most important factors to evaluate the performance of electric control business are: quality, time schedule, safety and environmental protection, technical ability, communication and coordination services. 2) . The electric control resources¡¦ integration and management of China Steel Group: a. Through resources, business and organization as well as by the coordination and monitoring system, the integration and management of the electric control resources of China Steel Group will become more effectively. b. In addition to the original electric control maintenance and engineering business, China Steel Group should strengthen the function of electric control professional staff to integrate the group¡¦s resources. c. The way to integrate electric control resources are: technology and information integration, material and logistics integration, process/organization and human resources integration. d. Project detail design and software maintenance for DCS and PLC should be subcontracted to subsidiary company, InfoChamp System Corp., to enhance its capability in addition to keep core capability inside China Steel Group. e. Maintain the existing district-based electric maintenance system; Integrate group-wide resources to set up group¡¦s electric control engineering company responsible for all group's electric control projects; Functions of companies¡¦ electric control department shall be transformed into group¡¦s professional staff. 3) . The necessity and direction to establish China Steel Group¡¦s general management office: a. The performance of resource integration in China Steel Group is very important. b. More than 85.2% of respondents considered Group¡¦s general management office should be established or expand the parent company (China Steel Corp.) existing organizations to integrate the resources of China Steel Group. Finally, the result of this study is not only meaningful for China Steel Group but also can be applied in other industry group companies and engineering companies.