Category: Competition

Competition analysis

According to Christine K. Volkmann, Kim Oliver Tokarski and Marc Grunhagen, authors of the book titled ‘Entrepreneurship in a European Perspective: Concepts for the Creation and Growth of New Ventures’, any marketing process is seen to be enriched by market and competition analysis (Volkmann, Tokarski and Grunhagen 2010).

For example, market together with competition analysis generally involve activities that center on market research, market volume and market potential, market segmentation and positioning, and competition analysis in whole (Volkmann, Tokarski and Grunhagen 2010). Competition analysis represents continuous and selective observation of the market that is coupled with continuous market monitoring, which in essence provides for up-dated and relevant information about customers, competitors, the market, and overall business environment.

In other words, key questions that should be addressed by competition analysis include: “who are the customers of the company; who are the competitors of the company; what the unique selling proposition; how old are the products of the competitors; how old are the competition firms; what is the unique selling proposition of the product and the firm; which is the relevant market segment for the product” (Volkmann, Tokarski and Grunhagen 2010p.195).

According to a business article titled, ‘e-Business Plan: Competitor Analysis’ – an web-based marketing article providing a discussion on competition -, competition analysis constitutes an important element for any marketing plan. In essence, competition analysis is carried out since it “reveals the company’s competitive position in the ‘marketspace’; assist the company to develop strategies to be competitive; and investors of the business require the marketing plan to ascertain the competitive advantage of the company in the market” (Anonymous – author of the e-Business plan article, n.d, p.1).

Competition analysis starts with the process of identifying and evaluating the range and level of competition the company face and this include evaluation of direct competitors, indirect competitors and future competitors (Anonymous, n.d, p.1). The next step is to find out the actual competitors that pose threat to the company both in current moment and in future. After this, the company has to establish a competition analysis grid which is regarded a resourceful and valuable tool to carry out comparison of key company competitors from numerous perspectives that include “company information, product or service information, customer information, and sources of competitive advantage” (Anonymous n.d, p.1).

On overall, the competition analysis grid should be able to bring out both opportunities and weaknesses the competitors possess, and the strategy of the company should be to maximize and exploit on the opportunities created by competitor weakness while at the same creating re-adjustment programs and risk avoidance initiatives with aim of minimizing threats emanating from the competitors strengths (Anonymous, n.d, p.1).

Robert Stevens and David Loudon, authors of a marketing book titled, ‘Marketing planning guide’ contend and suggest that two fundamental questions generally get answered through competitive analysis: what is the nature of the forces that shape competition in the particular market; and which competitors are going after which market segment and with what marketing strategies (Stevens and Loudon 2005). The first question dwells on overall competition and the particular forces that influence the nature of the competition specifically in a given product-market situation. The second question on its part put much emphasis on the specific market segments that largely have been identified and selected through consumer analysis (Stevens and Loudon 2005).

The advice presented in numerous literatures is for the companies irrespective of their natures to embark on market segment competitor analysis, since evidence shows that a company is able to gain competitive advantage on segment-by-segment basis rather than on an entire market (Stevens and Loudon 2005). The aim and overall advantage of the segment analysis is to identify the segments or groups of consumers currently not served or segments competitors do not have clearly identifiable strategies.

Competitive analysis for online companies may be challenging, but on overall, the analysis does not deviate from the general principles of usual competitive analysis. With regard to Topcars, competitive analysis may include analyzing other online competitors involved in the sale of car accessories. Within the UK market, such equal competitors to Topcars and upon which the company should form its analysis include Halfords, Wilco Motor Spares, EMG Mitsubishi Cambridge, Discount Autoparts Ltd, Express Auto and Bonnets (Cambridge Online, 2010). The company should establish the marketing strategies used by the competitors, their market niche, their pricing strategy, their overall strengths and weaknesses, and lastly their promotional strategies.

According to Susan Ward, an online small business journalist and author, competition analysis largely constitutes process of collecting the necessary information and data about the company’s key competitors. The author asserts that important content of the competition analysis should dwell on, “what markets or market segments your competitors’ serve, what benefits your competition offers, why customers buy from them, and competitor’s products or services, their pricing and promotion” (Ward 2000, p.1). To efficiently gather the information, Susan Ward is of the view that certain key steps should be followed such as: “visiting the bricks and mortar store of competitors; visiting the competitors’ websites, locating the competitors’ business sites, talking to competitors’ customers and clients or evening talking to friends and acquaintances associated with the company competitors” (Ward 2000, p.1).

After the collection of relevant information concerning competitors, the company now has to analyze the information and find useful ways to use the information with regard to competitors. As a result, Susan Ward continues to provide advice where her position is that, the company should identify market niche that competitors have currently not established their presence, identification of market segment that has been ignored or overlooked by competitors, and identify the service or product that clients needs but competitors do not provide (Ward 2000).

Positioning

Robert Stevens and David Loudon, established marketing authors, define product positioning as, “the place the product occupies in the minds of customers relative to a set of criteria the customers use to think about the product and relative to a group of competitors that the customers have as an evoked set when considering the product” (Stevens and Loudon 2005, p.).

Product positioning comes after a thorough and effective market segmentation strategy has been formulated (Nijssen and Frambach 2000). After segmentation of the market has been done, the marketing personnel of the company need to make decision regarding appropriate positions that the product can most profitably occupy in each selected segment (Beamish and Ashford 2005).

Product position is seen to be an extension of brand image with respect to competing products, which is the way the product is competitively defined by consumers on key attributes (Beamish and Ashford 2005). The authors, famous for their book titled, ‘Marketing Planning’ further note that, during the instances of defining market positioning strategies, the objective does not only rest with product position, but also involves company positioning within the market place. This is essential in that, it aims at giving the company a competitive identity; thus, four questions guiding this positioning strategy include is the company going to be a market leader, market challenger, and market niche or market follower (Beamish and Ashford 2005).

In positioning as market leaders, the company opens its entrances for numerous competitor attacks and the attacks are likely to be aggressive in nature, which calls for need of constant monitoring of the competitor activities. Generally, competitor attacks may include market expansion; aggressive and offensive attacks to regain lost market share or defensive attacks to protect the existing markets (Beamish and Ashford, 2005).

On the other hand market challengers in most cases are hard to compete since they employ aggressive strategies using there immense resources. At the same time, they possess effective market intelligences and competitor profiles, which they use to attack (Beamish and Ashford, 2005). Market followers rank lower on the fiercest scale, and in general, possess some advantages where they usually follow the market leader strategies duplicating and becoming more reactive rather than proactive (Beamish and Ashford, 2005).

Lastly, market niches specialize and concentrate in specific particular market segments. To them aim is to achieve competitive advantage through differentiation of products and movement towards high quality markets (Beamish and Ashford, 2005). John Bradley, the author of an article titled ‘Product positioning strategy ‘, summarizes the strategies for product positioning by noting that, marketing succeed when the firm is able to establish appropriate product positioning strategy by adopting the six strategies of, “attribute or benefit, by use or application, by user, by product or service class, by competitor, and by price or quality” (Bradley 2007, p.1).

In other words, Osama Taha, an author of an online article titled, ‘Hot to Design your Position Strategy’ notes that “a positioning strategy results in the image you want to draw in the mind of your customers, the picture you want customers to visualize of what you offer, in relation to the market situation, and any competition the company face” (Taha 2004, p.2). At the same time, product-positioning strategy works out successfully after a company carries out an effective situation analysis during the marketing planning process.

With regard to Topcars Company, before deciding on marketing strategy, the company should fulfill the following processes: first, identify key features of the product that members of the target market use to evaluate the product; second, determination of the current positioning that competitive products occupy; and lastly, identify market niches the identified features can be offered in the best way and better than what competitors can do (Stevens and Loudon 2005).

Market mixing

Balram Dogra, an author of a book titled, ‘rural marketing’ defines Marketing mix refers to, “the set of actions, tactics, tools, or variables that a company uses to promote and sell its brand or product in a market” (Dogra, 2007, p.80). On overall, marketing mix constitutes all the tools a company may utilize to realize its objectives in the target market by aligning the company’s offer with the competitive environment as well as with the consumer needs and behavior (Baker and Hart 2007). Marketing mix has further been classified as 4Ps of marketing especially in instances to develop appropriate marketing plan, according to William M. Pride, Robert James Hughes and Jack R. Kapoor (2008), authors of the book titled ‘Business’.

According to Jerome McCarthy (1960), the pioneer of 4Ps of marketing, any company determined to enhance its competitiveness in the market must be able to effectively and efficiently control the 4Ps of marketing: product, price, promotion, and place (Dogra 2007). The 4Ps of marketing have typically constituted the marketing mix, although nowadays more Ps of marketing has been identified such as packaging, positioning, people, pacer, passion, publics, and politics (Dogra 2007).

Product

Product, according to the definition provided by Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong, authors of ‘Principles of Marketing’, constitutes entire features and combination of both tangible and intangible goods and associated services that a company offers to its customers (cited in Vaneeva 2007). Further, product represents the most critical aspect of marketing mix, resting on two major reasons: products with regard to those producing it reflect the market expression, which reveals the company’s productive potentials while at the same time, measures the ability of the company to link with consumers (Lazer, 2007 cited in Vaneeva 2007).

As a result, product policy for a company has become essentially important whereas at the same time, product decisions state the extent and path of company’s activity; the product produced by any company again comprises both a component and a determinant of the marketing mix since it hold superior power on the other elements of the mix (Vaneeva 2007). With numerous products of auto accessories, Topcars Company has the advantage of being only auto online company. This enables the company to reach a wider global market as compared to its competitors.

With regard to product strategy, Topcars should establish a registration forum with relevant market niche online. Website product for the company should further have a link for signature, which can be used to get feedback for the product hence future improvement. On overall, the product strategy of the company should center on key aspects of features and benefits, brand name, quality, safety, service, and warranty (Hayes and Miller 2010).

Pricing

Kotler and Armstrong (2004), established marketing authors, are of the view that, pricing in essence involves setting a precise price as value for a product or service being offered by the company (Vaneeva, 2007). The authors, in basic terms, refer to price as “the amount of money that customers have to pay to obtain the product” (cited in Vaneeva 2007, p.1). Generally, assigning prices to products and services has become a hard task where, in most instances, low prices have been associated with attracting more customers (Vaneeva 2007).

Price strategy for any firm under marketing mix examination involves looking at the two identifiable parts: first, price determination refers to, “processes and activities employed to arrive at a price for a product including consideration of relative prices of products within the same line, and differences in price for similar products of differing grades and qualities” (Vaneeva 2007, p.1). On the other hand, price administration constitutes “all activities involved in fitting basic prices to particular sales situations such as geographic locale, functions performed by customers, position of distribution channel members, or special sales situations” (Vaneeva 2007, p.1).

According to an article by MBA Tutorials, online business tutorial materials titled, ‘Product Pricing Strategies’, when a product is part of market mixing, then the company can adapt to the following pricing options; “product line pricing, optional product pricing, captive product pricing, and product bundle pricing” (MBA Tutorials, 2009, p.1). Given Topcars in Cambridge is the only online company hence it reaches many consumers even outside its established market, its pricing strategy can be created around low-high price strategy. Low prices can be offered in new markets, as penetration into the market becomes the focus, while high prices can be adopted in high and increasing markets. Online advantage of the company should be used to provide information constantly about the price strategy of the company.

Promotion

Strategies with regard to promotion of products and services comprises all means in which a company is able to facilitate communication of product benefits and values to its target customers with broad aim of convincing them into buying the product (Kotler and Armstrong 2004 cited in Vaneeva, 2007). Promotion borrows heavily from marketing communication process, and in its sense, promotion involves the company’s strategy to provide for the marketing communication process.

Actual message propagated by promotion is advertisement in nature or sales presentation and the actual target of these advertisements is the potential customer (Vaneeva, 2007). Topcars as web-based company has an upper hand in promoting promotional activities that reach many clients and potential customer. Promotional strategy for Topcars should be to provide relevant and unique information about the products on the web that other competitors cannot. At the same time, advertisement in business journals and newspaper will leverage the company above its competitors.

In analyzing these 4Ps of marketing, it has been recommended that there should be maintenance of balance for all elements of marketing mix (Vaneeva, 2007). At the same time, the following key factors should be observed: analysis of entire product decisions that the company has been promoting such as product quality, key features, certain product options, style, name, product packaging product size, after-sale services, and many more. From this analysis, the company should further be able to locate its main aims and objectives through product.

In addition, to have an effective pricing analysis, it is important for the company to compare the existing pricing strategy with the company’s product position in the market (Vaneeva, 2007). Various pricing strategies exist that the company may use “penetration, skimming, competition-based pricing, psychological pricing, and price wars” (Proctor, 2000 cited in Vaneeva 2007, p.1). Lastly, effective promotion analysis largely intends to identify the communication goals that the company intends to achieve. In carrying out promotion activities, the following goals should be met; creation of awareness of the product, providing full information regarding the product, brand recognition, accessing a particular target audience, and evoking desire of purchase for the product (Vaneeva, 2007, p.1).

Place

According to Noel Capon, author of the book titled ‘Capon’s marketing framework’, marketing mix concept of place refers to how and where a particular product can be sold (Capon 2009). In essence, a product should be able to reach the consumers at the right time, right quantity, and in right state. Today, online technology is accelerating faster, the availability of products in different parts. Customers are able to make purchases online without having to move to the physical location.

Therefore, any effective marketing plan has to ensure place concept of any product is catered for, based on market intelligence and reports. Topcars uses various distribution channels; but it will be prudent for the company to research and use effective distribution channels that will ensure delivery of products to consumers is efficient (Capon 2009). Further, utilizing its website, the company can create opportunities to partner with other established online distribution channels to enhance the delivery of products to consumers is efficient.

Reference List

Anonymous. N.d. e-Business Plan: Competitor Analysis. Web.

Baker, M. J. and Hart, S., 2007. The marketing book. MA, Butterworth-Heinemann. Web.

Beamish, K., and Ashford, R., 2005. Marketing Planning. MA, Elsevier. Web.

Bradley, J. J., 2007. Product positioning strategy. Web.

Capon, N., 2009. Capon’s marketing framework. UK, Wessex Publishing. Web.

Dogra, B., 2007. Rural Marketing: Concepts and Practices. New Delhi, Tata McGraw-Hill. Web.

Hayes, D. K. and Miller, A. A., 2010. Revenue Management for the Hospitality Industry. MA, John Wiley and Sons. Web.

MBA Tutorials. 2009. Product Pricing Strategies. Web.

Nijssen, E. J. and Frambach, R. T., 2000. Creating customer value through strategic marketing planning: a management approach. NY, Springer. Web.

Pride, W. M., Hughes, R. J., and Kapoor, J., 2008. Business. OH, Cengage Learning. Web.

Stevens, R. E., and Loudon, D., 2005. Marketing planning guide. NY, Routledge. Web.

Taha, O., 2004. How to Design Your Positioning Strategy. Web.

Vaneeva, V., 2007. Marketing Mix. Web.

Volkmann, C. K., Tokarski, K. O., and Grunhagen, M., 2010. Entrepreneurship in a European Perspective: Concepts for the Creation and Growth of New Ventures. Berlin, Gabler Verlag. Web.

Ward, S., 2000. Writing the Business Plan: Preparing the Competitive Analysis of Business Plan. Web.

In the business world it’s normal for various enterprises to compete against each other. Only the strongest are able to survive in business world because if you can’t keep up with the pace you won’t catch up with the rest. Success in business comes after having endured so many barriers and holding on to your position even when others have let go. In business, you have to be ahead of your competitors. Competition on the other hand benefits the customers because they get goods and services at very low prices. This paper focuses on the BOS and five forces model, as strategies that have been put in place regarding competition.

One of the strategies employed by business executives is the Blue Ocean Strategy. This model is based on enterprises that have not yet been ventured into. In this strategy there are two important terminologies and they are namely red ocean and the blue ocean. The red ocean means the ventures that already there. Gingerella (2010) argues that the blue ocean strategy is not developed due to love of exploring but because of the decline in present business ventures.

The above scenario happens when there are so many people in the same industry which causes them to flood the market and in return the cost of commodities and services declines and thus they can’t reap from their businesses. The next option is the blue ocean strategy which means that the entrepreneurs have to establish different enterprises in order to prevent competition. This is what most of the firms are determined to achieve.

Sometimes exhaustion of demand is caused by people who venture into businesses without researching about their intended venture because they look at those who have made it in a particular business and think that they too can be successful like them without bothering to understand the challenges they have overcome for them to be where they are today (Kim & Mauborgne, 2005). It is said that Rome was not built in one day and the same thing applies to businesses.

There is stiff competition in business world which keeps business owners on their toes, lest they loose their customers. In business you have to do what your competitors are not doing in order to lure some customers. The idea here is to use all means to achieve customer satisfaction. Kim and Mauborgne (2005) explain that the blue ocean strategy eliminates competition by bringing a lot of diversity in business ventures.

This argument may be difficult to agree with but then there can be no competition among businesses that deal in different merchandise. For instance, there can be no competition between a mechanic and a computer technician hence if the two parties were to establish their businesses in close proximity they can never be in conflict due to competition because the computer technician can only repair computers only but not vehicles and vice versa.

The flooding of market supply is normally caused by people who want to venture into businesses that are already present because they don’t want to take the risk of venturing into new kind of businesses. What they don’t understand is that the entrepreneurs whom they perceive to be successful bore all the risks for their businesses to thrive. BOS encourages entrepreneurs to look at the environment and identify the new needs that have not been present among the people instead of engaging in businesses that already exist (Gingerella, 2010).

But for one to venture into a new kind of business it requires patience and determination because it will take time for the business to be recognized and have a considerable customer base. By the time the people around you realize that they can also do that business you are already established and their competition can not be a threat to your business because for them they are doing it due to their greed and thus they don’t do it right.

On the other hand, Michael Porter’s model is based on withstanding the competition. It is called Five Forces model and it states that businesses should ensure they are ahead of the game in order to defeat their competitors. The forces include rivalry among firms, price of alternative products, strength of consumers, strength of suppliers, and hindrance of joining/leaving the market (Gillespie, 2007) This means that business owners should observe what their competitors are doing and then advance it before they introduce it into their business.

This competition leads to decline in proceeds hence it’s not healthy for businesses, but on the contrary it benefits the customers because it ensures that customers get the best of the best from sellers of goods and services. According to Hill and Gareth (2008), businesses that get exhausted from this competition have to depart from the market and thus the ones that remain are the ones that can handle the situation at hand.

The proceeds reduce drastically because sometimes businesses have to lower their commodity and services cost in order to retain their customers. This move is necessary when a competitor or competitors lowers their prices. This might make your customers, even those who are loyal, to desert your business because they have realized they can get the same goods and services from another seller at subsidized prices. Sometimes its not the price that matters but the quality of goods and services because most of the time customers are wiling to spend extra cash on a service or a product provided its worth and durable.

Besides that, businesses and organizations improve their products and services but before the advancement of a product the organization must ensure that her competitor’s products and services do not exhibit the same features because if they do there is no need of improving the quality of the product or service. For instance, a vehicle manufacturer might consider making a car model that operates on verbal commands but before he introduces the model into the market, he has to observe the models of his rival manufacturers to ensure they don’t have such a feature. The extra feature will attract more customers and thus improve the sales.

Most businesses and organizations struggle to secure a market share among high income earners and ignore the low income earners. What they don’t know is that they can introduce tailor made products and services for the low income earners and thus incorporate them into the market share. This can be done by reducing the quantity of the product which will cause its price to go down. Although high income earners buy in bulk, their frequency of purchase is low compared to that of low income earners. This means that low income earners can bring more sales.

According to Gillespie (2007), in this model of five forces, competition intensifies due to the rise of more businesses and organizations that sale the same merchandise and services. This is because as these businesses are multiplying the customers don’t multiply hence they have to lure the customers of their rivals to buy their goods and services. This is why businesses that are already established have to put more efforts in order to retain their existing customers so that they are not snatched by their rivals.

The pace at which the market expands also affects competition. When the market of goods and services is concentrated on one particular location businesses can not grow further as opposed to when the market expands rapidly. For instance, fast foods do well in urban centers hence the owners depend on development of urban centers in order to open new branches hence the market share expands slowly. On the other hand, transport services are required almost everywhere hence the entrepreneurs can expand their empires to upcoming towns and its certain they will get customers.

Competition increases where the customers are able to shift from one product to another without incurring any costs or inconveniences. But when customers cannot easily shift from one product or service provider to another, competition reduces. This is because most people don’t want to follow the procedures that are to be undertaken when they are shifting.

Sometimes a company may be willing to close down, may be due to lack of sales but then their equipments are too complex and the kind of products or services that they provide are unique in that there are very few companies that are in that kind of business and thus no organization can purchase their equipment. This means they have to remain in business until they find another entity that can purchase their equipments.

The price of alternative items can affect the market negatively or positively. When alternative items cost less, the demand of the item in question will go down and if the price of the alternative items cost more, the demand of the same item will be high.

If the strength of the purchaser is above that of the seller the producer will have to stick to the terms of the purchasing party and this happens when there are multiple producers and a sole purchaser. This means that it’s the purchasing party that will set the price at which they will buy the products and at such point the producer has no alternative because that’s the only market for his/her goods and services and his/her competitors will be more than happy to take that share if he/she quits.

Another force of this model is assigned to suppliers of the materials that are used to manufacture the goods. If the suppliers are based in the same location they can affect the manufacturers by increasing the cost of the materials. In such case, the manufacturers have to get used to the changes because they don’t have other sources of materials. Suppliers are said to be stronger when the manufacturers can’t swap them whenever they wish without incurring costs.

Furthermore, hindrance to entry and exit also influences competition. When there are speculations of high returns one expects more organizations to venture into the said industry but then they are prevented by the initial cost of establishing their enterprise. Some government agencies limit the entry of new companies into the business world by having strict requirements that have to be fulfilled before a new organization is allowed to join a given sector (Hill & Gareth, 2008).

In conclusion, the two models can help an organization succeed when applied appropriately. Whichever strategy a business entity chooses, be it BOS or five forces model, it requires commitment and patience because sometimes the market events change abruptly without prior notice hence business executives should observe the events and indicators in order to decide which strategy is best suited for their enterprise. The two strategies share a similarity because they both deal with competition but their differences are on how they help in reducing competition. BOS model tends to eliminates competition while the five forces model identifies ways of retaining competition without losing customers.

Reference List

Gillespie, A., 2007. Foundations of Economics. New York: Oxford University Press.

Gingerella, L., 2010. The Blue Ocean and Business Models: How to go Blue and Stay Blue. Global Trendz Marketing. Web.

Hill, C. & Gareth, J., 2008. Strategic management Theory: An integrated Approach, Mason, OH: Cengage Learning,

Kim, C. & Mauborgne, R., 2005. Blue Ocean Strategy. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Equal access to the energy infrastructure in Europe has had a wide array of effects on the promotion of competition. Vertical integration is the most common form of energy distribution that is dominant in most European countries. Consequently, the distribution of energy in Europe depends on a single outfit. Nowak notes that “while competition can be promoted in generation/production and supply side of the vertical integration, transmission and distribution segments remain natural monopolies that hinder market mechanisms” (2010, p. 3692).

Therefore, the energy infrastructure in Europe has been detrimental in promoting healthy competition within the industry. The infrastructure that is dominant in Europe favours the dominant companies by allowing them to maintain the status quo whilst making it hard for new businesses to venture into the energy industry. To balance out the lack of competition in Europe’s energy market, there is a need to liberalize the energy industry in the region by ensuring equal access to the energy infrastructure. All these measures require goodwill on the side of the political stakeholders.

On the other hand, lack of infrastructural access within the European energy market is also harmful to the infrastructure itself. The principle of the free market is responsible for various advancements in technology and the energy infrastructure. Market preconditions are also responsible for the high standards that drive the energy market within Europe. Consequently, there is a need to drive the competition within the energy sector in Europe in order to make the sector reflect the natural progress of the overall industry. For instance, one research notes that “if regulated prices are not in line with market prices, suppliers without significant low-cost generation capacities and infrastructural assets or equivalent long-term contracts will not be able to make competitive offers, which they need in order to cover their supply costs” (Alexander & Weeds 2006, p. 23).

Governments can respond to the problems of poor infrastructure through a number of measures. Most of these measures are aimed at liberalizing the market by loosening the control of private entities on the energy infrastructure (Rotaru 2014). Energy infrastructure would suffer from various issues that can be traced back to vertical integration, including degradation of infrastructure, manipulation of standards, and concealment of facts.

Lack of competition in the infrastructure that is responsible for delivering energy to customers in Europe has had various impacts on the elements of cost. Costs of energy translate differently in areas that embrace regulation and the ones that do not (Westphal 2006). Consequently, energy prices are a big determinant of economic stimulation within Europe. Governments are concerned with high-energy prices, but these costs are also subject to a number of factors. Research indicates that consumers are more likely to pay less for energy in markets that are less volatile (Nowak 2010).

Energy is an on-demand product, and this means that consumers are more satisfied with the continuous supply of their product. Therefore, costs are more stable in environments where there is a regulation of infrastructure. For instance, the vertical integration of energy infrastructure is responsible for the instability of energy prices within Europe. One research notes that “the delivery of energy, whether via electricity, gas or oil, is also dependent on the limitations of transmission capacity and the stability of the delivery infrastructure” (Kjarstad & Johnsson 2007, p. 3643). Limiting competition in energy infrastructure access is responsible for costs of energy-products in Europe rising because they limit the availability of these products.

References

Alexander, I & Weeds, H 2006, Regulatory structure and risk and infrastructure firms: an international comparison, The World Bank, Copenhagen.

Kjarstad, J & Johnsson, F 2007, “The European power plant infrastructure-presentation of the Chalmers energy infrastructure database with applications”, Energy Policy, vol. 35, no. 7, pp. 3643-3664.

Nowak, B 2010, “Equal access to the energy infrastructure as a precondition to promote competition in the energy market: The case of European Union”, Energy Policy, vol. 38, no. 7, 3691-3700.

Rotaru, D 2014, “Specifics of the Energy Markets”, CES Working Papers, vol. 3, no. 12, pp. 76-85.

Westphal, K 2006, “Energy policy between multilateral governance and geopolitics: whither Europe”, Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft, vol. 4, no. 5. pp 44-62.

Type of Market

The United Parcel Service (UPS) operates in the carrier industry, and it has developed a stronghold in the logistics field, offering supply chain management solutions for companies in different parts of the world. The company is also actively engaged in package delivery to homes across the United States and other parts of the world (Plunkett, 2015). Currently, the company operates in over 200 nations in the world, and it has harnessed the largest market share in the global market (The World’s Most Valuable Brands, 2015). Ups is a franchising company that allows investors to open UPS stores as long as they meet some financial and legal requirements, and this is part of its tremendous success over the years (Shipping, 2015).

Competition

The carrier industry is associated with the presence of several giant companies that compete for market share. UPS faces a monopolistic competition. Despite UPS acquiring the leading status in the global industry, it faces stiff competition from several companies. In the US market, the closest rival to the company is FedEx. FedEx has a relatively large market share locally and internationally, and it has always looked to beat UPS in the business through the provision of quality services at affordable prices (Hesseldahl, 2005). The two companies have a similar business model; hence, their quest for a bigger market share in the local market is bound to continue. In the international market, the European market is dominated by TNT Express and DHL. The two giant companies have established a loyal market share in the region, but UPS also has a stronghold on customers in the region.

Increasing Market Power

In monopolistic competition, companies can increase their respective market power by enhancing the uniqueness of their products and services. UPS should look to differentiate its services to harness a larger loyal market share. The company should ensure that its services are not perfect substitutes for the services offered by other companies in the industry (Monopoly, 2015). It is also advisable for the company to review the pricing system to harness a larger market share. Maintaining high quality in services and ensuring the company delivers packages faster than its rivals is also a viable approach to increasing market power. Most of the competitors in the market increase their competitiveness by providing faster package delivery services; thus, UPS should focus on providing the fastest services.

Patent Licenses

Patent licenses insulate companies from the competition; thus, they give the associated business entities the ultimate market power. This implies that companies holding patents can dictate the prices of their products because alternatives do not exist (Alden, 2015). This is quite unfair to the consumers because some of the products that are patented are found within the basic needs bracket. For instance, pharmaceutical companies patent most of their new inventions, and the associated drugs are always relatively expensive. This implies that despite the presence of drugs that can help people fight serious illnesses, the majority of the people cannot afford them. It is quite unethical to hold a patent and use it unethically; hence, patent licenses should have an expiry to facilitate the entry of cheaper alternatives of the products. The expiry of a patent provides competitors with a chance to develop similar products, and the availability of choices for the products lowers the associated prices.

References

Alden, L. (2015). Competition and Market Power. Web.

Hesseldahl, A. (2005). UPS Vs. FedEx Vs. DHL. Web.

Monopoly: Monopolistic Competition. (2015). Web.

Plunkett, J. W. (2015). Plunkett’s Transportation, Supply Chain and Logistics Industry Almanac 2015. Houston: Plunkett Research, Limited.

Shipping. (2015). Web.

The World’s Most Valuable Brands. (2015). Web.

The Purpose and Major Issues of the Case

Weight Watchers International Inc. is now one of the leaders in the market of services provided to people who want to lose and control their weight. The founder of the company stressed that “love, information, companionship, and commiseration of fellow overweight individuals were the key components… for the effective formula… to succeed at weight loss” (Dess et al. 202).

The company is now facing significant competition and it is also experiencing a considerable growth. Therefore, there are cautions that the company may lose its culture and basic principles that have attracted so many customers. There are concerns that the company will be unable to effectively address challenges of the new competitive environment.

Discussion of Recommendations

Thus, the company has an effective website where customers can get a wide range of services including diet and activity plans, discussions and online meetings in support groups, online videos with sport activities and so on. The company has managed to increase the number of its male customers focusing on gender peculiarities (thus, men prefer self-support). However, it is also clear that the rate of male customers can be increased.

It has been acknowledged that men prefer self-regulated programs and they are reluctant to participate in group meetings. Thus, it can be beneficial to focus on customization of plans for men. These plans should fit diverse preferences and lifestyles. Cultural background should also be taken into account irrespective of customer’s gender. It is clear that American overweight people come from different cultural backgrounds and it is important to customize diet and activity plans to these peculiarities.

Menus should include traditional foods. Activity plans can include some activities that are popular among specific groups. This will help people change their lifestyles to healthier ones with minimum inconveniences. Clearly, this will lead to the increase in customers’ satisfaction and it will also attract more customers. The company’s revenues are growing due to effective marketing strategies. Locating the company’s logos on some products has proved to be effective.

However, people (especially females) often prefer attending various sport facilities. Collaboration with these facilities can be beneficial as this will be another opportunity for customers to share experiences and get support from fellow overweight people. The company will also get profit form collaboration with facilities that will be eager to collaborate with a well-established brand. Of course, the company should keep the focus on the balance between plans and support as this turned out to be an effective formula which is still attracting many people. The online resources should involve online meetings, conferences and Weight Watchers should make the use of social networks more effective.

Summary of Recommendations

First, it can be beneficial to pay more attention to cultural diversity by including customized menus and lifestyles (involving some particular sports or activities typical of particular cultural groups), providing information in English, Spanish on the websites as well as during various events. Apart from selling some snacks and providing the company’s logos on some products, it is possible to collaborate (provide logos and develop specific programs) with some sport facilities where people could get a particular set of exercises and share some experiences with others.

Clearly, male customers can be seen as a great potential for the company where only 22% of customers are men while 70% of American males are overweight. To attract more males, it is important to develop a number of programs that could fit men having different backgrounds (pertain to different cultures, have different jobs, have different amount of free time and have different incomes). To maintain the balance between plans and support, it is useful to employ a variety of online tools (online meetings and conferences involving people from different states or even countries, use social networks like Facebook and Twitter more extensively and so on).

Works Cited

Dess, Gregory G., Tom Lumpkin, Alan B. Eisner, and Gerry McNamara. Strategic Management: Text and Cases. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2012. Print.

Introduction

Creativity in the workplace has been considered one of the most important tools that can help a firm achieve success in the market. With the increasing competition being experienced in the market, firms are forced to find ways of coming up with unique products quite often as a way of gaining a competitive edge over market rivals. It is important to understand the main motivating factor in creativity in the workplace. Some believe that creativity is fueled by competition amongst employees. They argue that when there is some sort of competition, employees would be motivated to come up with new ideas in undertaking their duties. Others argue that creativity is always motivated by close collaboration of employees in the workplace in all their activities. This research seeks to affirm that collaboration leads to creativity in the workplace.

Discussion

Creativity has gained a lot of attention in the recent past as firms struggle to come up with better ways of approaching different issues in their operations. According to Dance (56), creativity has been considered one of the major solutions to managing stiff market competition. In this study, the researcher seeks to respond to the question below.

To what extent does collaboration lead to creativity and innovation compared to competition in the workplace?

The question above is a clear demonstration that the researcher appreciates the effectiveness of competition as a major ingredient in inspiring employees for creativity in the workplace. A person, when placed in a competitive environment, would always want to become the best. This means that when employees are surrounded by the environment where they compete over something, they do their best to find ways in which they can overcome their colleagues. This motivates them to be creative. They would always strive to come up with new ways of achieving success in their tasks beyond what other colleagues in the workplace achieve.

The Humanistic Theory of Creativity seems to support competition as the main motivator of creativity in the workplace. This theory holds that human beings always strive to satisfy their basic needs. When these needs are satisfied, they try to achieving higher goals till they achieve self-actualization. According to this theory, one would always want to satisfy higher needs that will make him or her special over the others. This can be achieved when one sees other workmates as competitors. The self-actualization may be gained by getting higher ranks than others in the workplace. As a way of trying to be given these ranks, one can try to bring in creativity to make their work appear superior to that of the other workmates. This factor may fuel creativity among employees as they struggle to find better ways of accomplishing their tasks.

According to Perry (45), competition is one of the ways through which some firms managed to come up with creative ideas in handling different tasks. However, this poses some challenges in the company’s operation. When employees start viewing one another as competitors other than colleagues, they always try to work independently, hiding important information from workmates. If they come up with a new idea that can help other fellow employees, they would try to hide this information as a way of gaining an edge over others. This can be very disastrous because there is always the need to share information freely. It is only in this way that a firm can achieve success in the market.

Collaboration is the main approach through which a firm can achieve creativity in the workplace. Chung (78) notes that creativity can be developed when people work as a unit. It is not a one man’s show where individuals try to hide their new knowledge from others for the sake of personal glory. On the contrary, it is an effort made by every member of the organization to come up with new ideas of achieving success through finding new approaches to the problems. It is a concerted effort made by teams within the workplace to find better ways of achieving better results on different tasks.

Psychoanalytical Theory of Creativity is one of the major theories that have been used to explain some of the factors that promote creativity among individuals. According to this theory, individuals would become creative when faced with difficult circumstances or scenarios that repress their emotions. The proponents of this theory further argue that when people are faced with a repressing environment, they tend to use personal unconsciousness with the collective conscious to come up with creative ideas to overcome these difficulties (Pirola 27).

However, Muchinsky (98) warns that when creativity is borne through this approach, it may be very necessary to involve different parties in the assessment of these creative ideas before they can be put to practice. This scholar further states that not all creative ideas may be of benefit to a firm. For this reason, some creative concepts may need to pass through several stages before they can be put into practice within a firm. This means that collaboration may be necessary in achieving this.

An individual may need to share his or her creative idea with colleagues in order to improve it. As Duffy (64) notes, different people are good in different areas, and therefore, a close cooperation of individuals may be necessary when coming up with new concepts. An individual with technological skills may need a financial expert to determine the financial consequences of his or her new technological concept. He or she may need the services of marketing officer to help analyze the ability of the new product, associated with the new idea, to be successful in the market. This would help in determining its viability before it is put into practice.

This demonstrates that all these individuals would be playing a pivotal role in making such a new idea become a reality. If there is lack of collaboration amongst these employees in the workplace, there is a possibility that the technician may come up with a concept that is not financially viable. The new concept may also fail to be successful in the market.

Conclusion

Creativity is one of the most important ingredients that firms need in order to become efficient in facing the stiff competition in the market. Competition could be one of the ways through which creativity can be boosted. However, the best way of achieving creativity is through collaboration of employees. When they share their new ideas, it becomes easy to come up with creative ideas to handle different tasks.

Works Cited

Chung, Kae. “Toward a General Theory of Motivation and Performance”. California Management Review. 11.3 (2009): 81-88. Web.

Dance, Jeff. “5 Reasons why collaboration contributes to innovation.” Fresh Consulting. 27.1 (2008): 1-6. Web.

Duffy, Michelle. “Social Undermining in the Workplace”. The Academy of Management Journal. 45.2 (2002): 331-351. Web.

Muchinsky, Paul. “Emotions in the Workplace: The Neglect of Organizational Behavior”. Journal of Organizational Behavior. 21.7 (2000): 801-805. Web.

Perry, James. “Bringing Society in: Toward a Theory of Public-Service Motivation”. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. 10.2 (2000): 471-488. Web.

Pirola, Andrew. “The Relationship between Individual Creativity and Team Creativity: Aggregating across People and Time”. Journal of Organizational Behavior. 25.2 (2004): 235-257. Web.

Introduction

Employers of many companies persuade their employees to adopt careers that suit their present jobs. To a further extend, employers have a tendency of firing their employees due to confusion between job security and career security. A career is a pursuit of a lifelong objective, vision, or ambition. It entails a process that leads someone to a permanent objective.

Job security is the likelihood of individuals to keep their jobs because the chances of such individuals to remain jobless are at the stake of those who have higher qualifications; hence, they strive to minimize the chances of being unemployed due to by maintaining a high degree of hard work or qualification.

Therefore, employees have to acquire adequate training to remain competent. Consequently, they have to seek higher qualifications than those of their colleagues. This essay focuses on the following questions, as mentioned in the case study ‘HRM Capstone’.

Is JD concerned more with job security or career security?

JD is concerned more with job security than career security. He describes the Petroleum and Chemical industry as one that has several projects in-house. Therefore, a competition is realized amongst the employees. This situation has compelled some employees in the firm to acquire further training in an attempt to maintain their competitiveness. A weakness that is realized is that many of the workers are employed on lower ranks due to limited training that the firm offers to the employees (Dekker 373).

JD acknowledges the problem by analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that exist within the environment of the company. As an engineer in the company, JD knows that he has the capacity to handle technical assignments. However, he understands that many of his colleagues have better skills than his.

To seize the new opportunity in the company, he enrolls for training in the university to advance his skills on software and good work ethics that are required in the company. Eventually, these skills have enabled him to be ranked among the top performers in the company. Consequently, an analysis of the case study reveals that his ambitions are based on job security rather than career security (Picchio 146).

Do you agree with JD’s statement “Your knowledge is your portfolio within your current workplace or within the industry? How is this true? Discuss.

An examination of the case study reveals that Wallace JD’s objective is to obtain employment in a company that will enable him to develop his career. Contrarily, he seems more focused on the development of skills to maintain his employment status than to develop his career. Career development does not necessarily require employment stability.

However, there is a risk of being unemployed or fired because of wrong career involvement. JD does not show the risk involved in his career. He readily joins the college to train further in a bid to maintain the job and attain a promotion. Therefore, I agree with Wallace’s statement “Your knowledge is your portfolio within your current workplace or within the industry” (Picchio 147).

What area of HR is involved in the case? Give situations from the case.

The case study provides clarity on employment and salary remuneration; hence, it falls under the staffing section in the Human Resource Department. A good example is evident where both internal employment opportunities and training are being offered to the employees. In addition, the issue of promotion to new ranks is under this section. Promotion of employees is evident when Wallace is offered a new position in the company (Picchio146).

In conclusion, the workplace has become increasingly competitive. As a result, many employees strive to maintain their competitiveness in terms of skills and knowledge that pertains to the prevailing job conditions rather than the advancement of their careers. In the aforementioned case study, JD Wallace clearly shows his desires to acquire skills and knowledge about his position in the company.

Works Cited

Dekker, Ronald. Non-Standard Employment and Mobility in the Dutch, British and German Labour Market, Tilburg: Tilburg University Press, 2007. Print.

Picchio, Matteo. “Temporary Contracts and Transitions to Stable Jobs in Italy.” Labour 22.1(2008): 147-7. Print.

Background

The La Fitness Centre is one of the renowned fitness centres in the Hatfield region. It started its operations in 1984 (Black, 2013). This organization is equipped with tailored starter programmes, fully supervised gyms, super-free weight facilities, personal trainers, meta-fits, indoor pools, and cricket net facilities (Black, 2013). This organization offers services that support physical exercises. La Fitness faces competition from giant organizations such as David Lloyd, YMCA Health and Fitness, Mill Hill School Sports Centre, and Devine Fitness Ltd (Caster, 2013). Currently, the main problem affecting the La Fitness Centre is competition. Many organizations have ventured into this business, leading to competitive forces based on facilities offered, pricing, customer relations, promotional activities, and service delivery among other issues (Black, 2013).

La Fitness has held the third position, after David Lloyd Leisure and the Virgin Active group. The above diagram shows the market share of the health and fitness club operators in Hatfield. Researchers hold that after the period of recession, the health and fitness sector has been growing at a rate of 2.4%, yearly (Brace, 2008, p. 56).

Research Objectives

Adjustments

Upon reviewing the initial objective of this research proposal, some aspects should be amended. The first adjustment would be to establish the behaviour of each market segment within the Hatfield area. Therefore, the objective will incorporate the demographic characteristics of potential customers in the Hatfield area.

Revised Objectives (RO)

• RO1: To assess and evaluate the primary competitors in terms of pricing strategies and other core competencies, in order to identify and copy the best strategies in its operations for different market segments.
• RO2: To assess, evaluate, and come up with new promotional strategies that can help the La Fitness Centre to gain competitive advantage within different market segments.
• RO3: To create an employee training module, in order to offer consumers personal services and develop good relationship with them.
• RO4: To purchase and modify the facilities to enable the La Fitness Centre to be competitive in the market.

Research Design

The evaluation research will be used in completing this applied dissertation. The other strategy will involve the participant-oriented model, which emphasizes on the central importance of the participant evaluation through use of a survey method (Chisnell, 2005).

Process of Research

The evolution research will be adopted to effectively carry out the qualitative research. The first stage will involve personal interviews with customers to establish the general public perception on quality and price of La Fitness’ services against those of its competitors. The survey will be revised within the responses of the focus group.

Methodology

This research will be conducted using survey approach. The researcher chose the qualitative approach rather than a quantitative because scope of the research is focused, subjective, dynamic, and discovery-oriented (Brace, 2004). The qualitative approach is best suited to gain proper insight into the RO1, RO2, RO3, and RO4 objectives as summarised below.

• RO1: Direct interview
• RO2: Questionnaire
• RO3: Questionnaire
• RO4: Focus group

Interviews

Data that will be collected through one-on-one interviews will be scrutinized in detail. Through open-ended and closed-ended questionnaires, each question asked will be comprehensive to ensure that respondents have opportunity to give deep answers that provide an insight into research solution. Transcription will then be done to each of the recorded interview transcripts. For each response, from each participant, the recorded transcripts will be perused to coin relevant and most appropriate reactions. In addition, the interviewer will have full control of the interview process and is likely to get first hand information with minimal biases. Moreover, the researcher will be in a position to seek further clarification on specific ideas and responses given within the interview timeframe (Afsar et al. 2010). The interviews are meant to provide information on the following:

1. The specific needs that the business has not addressed.
2. Reasons for the changed preference among the customers.
3. Activities within the La Fitness facility to promote customer-centricity.
4. Other fitness facilities that the customers visit.

In order to collect the data necessary for this study, several steps will be taken to protect the participants. The participants will be given consent forms which outline the topic of discussion and any relevant information that they might need before agreeing to be interviewed (American Management Association, 2003). Once consent is obtained, interviews will be set up with the selected participants. The researcher will act as the interlocutor with the participant, giving semi-structured individual interviews which will be conducted in the English language so that communication is given depth (Malhotra and Borks, 2010).

Questionnaire

Use of the qualitative research approach will facilitate understanding of the individual attributes that contribute to poor performance of the fitness club, as a result of competition. The researcher will use questionnaire to achieve this. This will allow the researcher to enter observed qualitative behaviour that is indicative of competition. This methodology will help in identification of statistical patterns in the data on competition using questionnaires (Proctor, 2013).

Adopting semi-structured open-ended questions interviews, data collection through one-on-one interviews will take a period of six days (American Management Association, 2003). The large-scale questionnaire survey for the qualitative phase will help identify the competencies and best marketing practices that are necessary to survive competition in the fitness sector (American Management Association, 2003).

The first qualitative question addresses the qualitative phase of the research and is intended to understand how marketing strategies are developed in general (Dubrin, 2008). The second qualitative question identifies the perceptions of the customers on the marketing strategies that the centre uses. The qualitative study will involve administration of questionnaire survey to identify existing marketing strategies and their effectiveness in the La Fitness Centre (Kumar and Kanchu, 2012). The questions are presented below.

• What are the marketing strategies that the La Fitness Centre practices to ensure that it attracts more customers?
• What best practices do the managers of the La Fitness Centre use to serve different market segments?

Focus Group

The focus group will enable the researcher to draw the customer perception towards the La Fitness Centre and other competitors. The responses will help the researcher to discover the reason behind the changing preference among customers. The researcher will send an SMS to all the registered members of the fitness centre with an invitation message to be part of the focus group. Members of the focus group will be encouraged to invite their friends and family members. The scope of the focus group will be to present the guiding rules of participation, create an environment for open discussion, and micromanage the testing and inference process.

Rationalisation of the Methodology

From responses gathered, one-on-one interview makes it easy to scribe clear responses to questions asked. Since the researcher will accord the research project professional seriousness, the willing respondents are likely to give reliable, credible, and informed responses to questions asked (American Management Association, 2003). The one-on-one semi-structured interviews allow for presentation of open-ended questions, which attract diverse open-ended answers (McGivern, 2006). This is a plus on side of the interviewer who will have an opportunity to gather expansive answers, as the respondent has freedom of speaking widely on problem statement. In the process, the respondent may in fact, provide an insight into a forgotten aspect of the study (Proctor, 2013).

Sampling Plan

Random Sampling

This research will target employees and customers of the La Fitness Centre since they have the knowledge on the reasons for low performance of the centre in relation to completion. A sample space of 45 participants will be interviewed. The sampling criterion that will be used in the initial sampling plan represents the true picture of activities on the ground. To begin with, the sampling plan considers several participants and concentrates on different shifts. Besides, this sample plan is representative of the La Fitness Centre’s market segment population and it is not bias. The results generated are from different sampling units with a sample space of one (American Management Association, 2003).

Issues of Discussion

Demographic Characteristics

Validity and reliability determine the accuracy of collected data in research. In order to achieve validity in questions presented in the questionnaire, it is essential to carry out question pre-testing (Proctor, 2013). On the other hand, reliability quantifies the magnitude of consistency of research instruments and the outcome created by the same. Based on findings from the literature review, participants will be asked to indicate which of the practices they use or rely on most (American Management Association, 2003). Some items may be listed for comparison and respondents asked to rate them in terms of frequency of use in order to gather their relative importance. Some basic information will be asked to identify demographic characteristics of the sample and to confirm eligibility of respondents with respect to meeting criteria for participation (Proctor, 2013).

Scale of Rating

The researcher should include an appropriate rating scale in order to make the statistical analysis authentic. The theory used in this evaluation will be the competition as influencing the level of business performance (Blattberg et al. 2001; Du et al. 2005). Qualitative information will be gathered through a 3-part survey in a Likert-type scale to rate specific information on a 1 (not influential) to 5 (extremely influential) in answer to research-based questions. In addition, theories and methods related to the evaluation of the data collected, methods, and a survey as part of the evaluation will be used to help determine the effectiveness of the research design and relevance of the research outcome (American Management Association, 2003; Hanson and Grimmer, 2007).

Data Analysis

The collected qualitative data will be coded and passed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version seventeen (Esposito, 2002). In the process, cross-tabulation will be used to compare and contrast the effects of competition on performance of the La Fitness Centre. In order to quantify the relationship between the independent and dependent variables, Cochran’s Q will be essential besides figures, charts, and tabular representation of correlation analysis (Catterall, 1998).

The Cochran’s Q

The Cochran’s Q will be designed to examine whether observed variability in the effect sizes lies within the expected range for a common population effect size or not. The purpose of this test will be to ascertain whether differences between responses are acceptable and of practical importance with the aim of identifying the most common skills and competencies. If similarities are found in the list of developmental competencies, with no statistical difference between them, then the hypothesis will be rejected while the null hypothesis accepted. The researcher will look for the extent of similarities or differences between responses (Proctor, 2013).

The Cochran’s Q method is used in qualitative studies where the researcher can quantify subjective opinion (Stephen and Hornby, 1995). The instrument for this method will be a Q-Sort that ranks statements. It is satisfactory to obtain the number of statements between 30 and 80 to validate the outcome of the study using this methodology. In order to avoid a low sensitivity of the Q-statistic, 20 responses will be considered an absolute minimum. If the responses fall below 20, additional questionnaires will be sent out to urge further participation (Proctor, 2013). Some basic information which will be tested is demographic characteristics of the sample and to confirm eligibility of respondents with respect to meeting criteria for participation during the analysis.

Interview Questions

1. Do you think that the competitors of the La Fitness Centre have better and more affordable services?
2. What attracts you to the other fitness centres that the La Fitness Centre does not have?
3. Do you think that the La Fitness Centre’s employees are always competent, professional, and helpful?
4. What facility or service would you recommend for the La Fitness Centre in order to attract customers?
5. Are there customised services and promotional discounts for the loyal customers in the other fitness centres?

Reference List

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Introduction

The UK construction industry is one of the core economic sectors, and the output of the industry is a component of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In 2014, the construction sector contributed £103 billion, or about 6.5% of the GDP. The sector employs 2.1 million or 6.2% of the total workforce (Haynes 2017). Forecasts indicate that output will rise by 1.3% in 2017, by 1.8% in 2018, and further increase by 2.3% in 2019. The sector saw a contraction in the aftermath of the economic recession of 2007 and remained under recession until 2014, when fractional growth started (ONS 2017). The sector is organised into different subsectors. These subsectors are public housing new, infrastructure new, public non-housing new, private industrial new, private commercial new, public housing repair and maintenance, private housing repair and maintenance, infrastructure repair and maintenance, and public and private non-housing repair and maintenance. Informally, the sector is organised into private and public housing; office, commercial, and retail; and infrastructure work (Rhodes 2017).

Costs are an important factor in the construction sector, and these costs include labour, materials, equipment, other input costs plus taxes, and contractor margins. In the past decade, these input costs have increased by 10.3% at the lower end, while contractor margins have shrunk. With rising costs, reduced margins and reluctance by banks to lend funds, contractors are under pressure to deliver quality projects on schedule (Haynes 2017). Key Performance Indicators (KPI) with benchmarked figures are used to evaluate the performance of a construction firm (Glenigan 2017).

The industry comprises a large number of small and private contractors and construction firms, and a few large firms that take up large local and international projects. Competitive advantage comes from the ability to manage and deploy resources effectively, manage the supply chain for the highest efficiency, reduce costs and wastage, and complete projects on time (Construction Products Association 2017). This proposal examines the structure of the construction sector, details subsectors and their cost structures, and evaluates the competitive strategy that large firms use to survive and grow.

Literature review and background

The UK construction sector is complex, as it covers many areas and activities. Small contractors take up work that may cost a few hundred pounds, while a large contractor such as Balfor Beatty takes up projects that are worth billions of pounds. Another complication is that larger contractors usually contract the work to smaller contractors who employ a few workers. These smaller contractors become a part of the large project. The cost structures are also different, since a small firm would have low fixed costs, while a large firm would have high fixed and variable costs. Costs also depend on the project location, as projects in remote areas have higher transportation costs (Haynes 2017). This section briefly reviews the literature on the construction sector and the costs and competitive strategy used in it.

Construction sector structure

As indicated in the introduction, the construction sector is composed of five subsectors. The growth dynamics and workload are different for each sector. Workload refers to the amount of capacity utilised by a sector versus its full capacity. Fig. 1 illustrates growth in these subsectors and the workload.

As seen in Fig. 1, private housing has the largest share and capacity utilisation of 33%, followed by infrastructure at 22% and private commercial at 18%. These figures indicate that the subsectors operate at below their rated workload. With the industry still under recession, the figure shows that construction has yet to make full recovery. In almost all areas, workload for Q3 2017 is less than that of Q2 2017. Total workload is low at 22%. Large infrastructure projects such as railways can help the industry to recover. Government spending has declined in the areas of public non-housing projects. Several factors such as uncertainty over Brexit have reduced investment. The gap identified is that it is not clear what the structures of these subsectors are, whether they are interrelated, to what extent they are fragmented and specialised, and what effect they have on competition and costs.

Construction costs

Construction costs have several components such as the cost of land (which can make up almost 40-60% of the building costs), material and labour costs, and taxes. Costs also depend on factors such as the project location, type of structure, intended use, funding and interest costs, and safety features; these factors can increase construction costs by 100%. Infrastructure project costs are different, as the land costs, size of the project, funding options, and procurement strategy are different; it is difficult to generalise construction costs. Databases are available that provide indicative costs. Therefore the cost structures for each of the six subsectors are different. The construction costs of a public railroad would be different from a private retail park, since the amenities offered and luxury features provided are different. With the government mandate of energy efficient buildings, the costs of constructing green buildings have increased. Methods of procurement also define costs (McGuckin 2016).

Cunningham (2013) discusses general factors that influence costs. Some of these are time and schedule, architect and designer costs, geometry and building envelope, plan shape, size, wall to floor ratio, free space, number of storeys, total height, and clusters of buildings. Economies of scale can be applied when constructing buildings for a large housing complex where the same design and layout is used for all properties. Other factors are materials used (since exotic materials such as Italian marble can add 20% to costs), sustainability features required, nature and physical condition of the site, location, accessibility, resources available, type of procurement – such as traditional, design and build, management procurement, or payment and tendering agreements – regulation constraints, and market conditions. Delays in supply chains, unexpected complexity and technical challenges, and requested changes can increase the costs by more than 100%. Commercial spaces such as offices and retail centres are completed at a much faster rate since the project owner needs to make time-bound deliveries (Arcadis 2017). Fig. 2 presents costs per square meter for different types of buildings in London.

As seen in Fig. 2, construction costs vary from 680 GBP/square meter for a car park to 3680 GBP for a full-service domestic terminal. Indicative costs for other types of buildings are also given, including commercial space, schools and universities, hospitals, hotels, industrial, residential, and retail. Based on the market price of materials, actual costs may vary. Margins or profits for contractors and construction firms are crucial for their survival. Construction costs indicated in Fig 2.2 do not reflect the margins. Intense competition, increasing material and transportation costs, delays, and risks all squeeze margins. On average, margins in the UK stand at 4% of the costs. If costs increase at any point during a project, the contractor has to bear the costs and suffer a loss (Arcadis 2017). The gap noticed in this section is that while general and indicative costs are known, the exact costs for different types of projects, as well as the input costs, margins, and the effect of competition on these costs is not clear.

Competitive strategy and advantage

There are unique factors and resources that a company can deploy to obtain competitive advantage. Firms can be cost leaders or quality leaders, and a resource-based view of organisations helps to understand the competitive advantage of construction firms. Often a contracting firm and the contractor have a confrontationist attitude, with each party trying to negotiate better terms at the cost of the other. Obvious factors that provide a competitive advantage are access to lower, steady prices of raw materials and labour, ability to avoid delays and adhere to schedule, and the ability to obtain better rates. A construction firm has very little control over these resources. Large firms often take up international projects where risks and uncertainties are higher. Many firms own or lease expensive equipment, and if these machines remain idle, then costs increase (Zhigang, Fei, Heng, & Martin et al. 2013). Ogunbiyi, Goulding & Oladapo et al. (2014) describe new techniques that large construction firms are using to increase performance and gain a competitive advantage. Some of these techniques are Building Information Systems (BIM), lean construction, and the Earned Value Method (EVM). The gap that needs to be examined includes the factors that provide competitive advantage, the manner in which construction firms obtain and deploy them, and the competitive strategy they use.

Motivation statement and problem identification

The literature review section showed that the construction sector sees intense competition among all subsectors. With a shrinking market and reduced margins and costs, it is essential to understand the dynamics and interrelation of these subsectors, assess their structure, and evaluate the impact of market forces and competition on costs and prices. The problem identified is to examine how construction firms survive and grow, the competitive strategy they adopt, and the impact of competition on prices and costs.

Research aim and objectives

The literature review section briefly examined the literature on the UK construction sector and identified gaps in the subjects of the structure of the construction sector, construction costs, and competitive strategy. Three objectives are framed, and these are:

• To identify the market structure of construction firms, their subcategories and interrelations, and the impact that these firms have on costs.
• To evaluate construction costs for different projects and subcategories, the cost components, margins, and the effect of competition on these costs.
• To determine the competitive strategy used by large construction firms and the methods they use to obtain a competitive advantage.

Research questions

Research questions are framed to meet the research objectives and to evaluate the UK construction industry’s structure, costs and competitive strategies. The research will first examine the manner in which the construction sector is organised, including its various subgroups and categories, their informal and formal affiliations, and the bargaining power of these groups. The findings will help to understand the extent of competiveness among various sectors and the effect that this has on price and costs. The study will then focus on the cost components, payment methods, and financial exposure of these firms, and how they manage risk. The study will also help to understand the competitive strategies that large construction firms use to gain a competitive advantage. The following research questions are proposed.

• What is the extent of fragmentation in the UK construction sector and in various subsectors?
• What is the impact of this fragmentation on competiveness, cost, and margins?
• What competitive strategy do large construction firms use to gain a competitive advantage?

Research methodology

Considering the multiple variables that will be analysed, a structured framework is essential for the research. Core issues to examine are the structure of the UK construction industry, construction costs, and competitive strategies. Selecting between qualitative and quantitative methods is essential. For this research, qualitative methods will be selected since the extracted data are in the form of variables such as relations, groups, regions, costs, and performance metrics. These cannot be examined fully by quantitative methods. An inclusive list of variables will be prepared and secondary research will be used to find data for these variables. The data will then be analysed using contextual analysis and conclusions will be drawn to answer the research objectives (Walliman 2017).

Research type

Since the research involves examining multiple sets of data, a qualitative methodology will be used along with simple Excel calculations. Some interpretation of the data is required. Since case studies of large construction firms will be developed, a case study research approach will be used. Hence the study will use mixed methods with a combination of qualitative, interpretive, and case study approaches, and the main method of data gathering is through secondary research (Bryman & Bell 2015).

Sample and target audience

The research sample will consider sources such as peer reviewed journals, books, and websites from reliable sources such as the UK government and construction firms. A wide variety of these sources will be reviewed and care will be taken to access the latest publications or sources not more than three years old.

Anticipated tools

Tools considered for research include databases such as ProQuest, Emerald, and JSTOR, and websites of the UK government. While MS Office will be used, including Excel, AutoCad viewers will be downloaded to study drawings.

Data analysis

Data types will include values and contextual and descriptive key words, as per the predefined variables. Data will be analysed by using descriptive statistics and with contextual analysis in order to understand the impact they have on the construction sector. Some of the variables proposed are given in Table 1.

Table 1. Variables for the research.

Thesis timeline

The Gantt chart in Figure 3 presents the project activities and timelines.

Conclusions

The proposal examined important aspects of the UK construction industry, including the structure and costs, and the competitive strategy of large customers. Several gaps were identified in the review, and further research can help to bridge these gaps. The recommendation is to begin the work on the full dissertation as per the timeline given in Fig. 3. The research will help to understand the dynamics of the construction industry and its competiveness, and the findings will help to address some of the problems that the industry faces.

References

Arcadis, 2017, International construction costs 2017: cost certainty in an uncertain world, Web.

Bryman, A & Bell, E, 2015, Business research methods, Oxford University Press, NY.

Construction Products Association, 2017, Construction industry forecasts 2017-2019, Web.

Cunningham, T, 2013, Factors affecting the cost of building work – An Overview, School of Surveying and Construction Management, Dublin.

Glenigan, 2017, Construction industry KPI report, Web.

Haynes, F, Construction statistics: number 18, 2017 edition, Web.

McGuckin, S, 2016, International construction market survey 2016, Web.

Ogunbiyi, O, Goulding, JS, & Oladapo, A, 2014 ‘An empirical study of the impact of lean construction techniques on sustainable construction in the UK’, Construction innovation, vol. 14, no. 1, pp.88-107.

ONS, 2017, Construction output in Great Britain: September 2017, Web.

RICS. 2017, Q3 2017: RICS UK construction and infrastructure market survey. Web.

Rhodes, C, 2015, Construction industry: statistics and policy, Web.

Zhigang, J, Fei, D, Heng, L, & Martin, S, 2013, ‘A practical framework for measuring the performance of international construction firms’, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, vol. 139, no. 9, pp. 1154- 1167.

Walliman, N, 2017, Research methods: The basics, Routledge, London.

Article #1

Title and Authors

The article The Aspects of Organizational Entrepreneurship in Competition Environment was written by Ph.D. Ebrahim Chirani and Rogayeh Hasanzadeh from the Islamic Azad University in Iran. The article was presented in the Kuwait Chapter of Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review in July 2013.

Summary

The authors of the article focus on corporate or organizational entrepreneurship and stress the importance of new ideas to develop both organizations and society. The article is divided into several sections. The first one examines the existing definitions of organizational entrepreneurship. The authors distinguish between the individual entrepreneur, group entrepreneur, and organizational entrepreneurship (Chirani & Hasanzadeh 2013). The authors explain each definition and accentuate the advantages and disadvantages of organizational entrepreneurship. In the next section, Chiarini and Hasanzadeh approach the necessity of organizational entrepreneurship.

According to them, corporate entrepreneurship allows the organization to resist and successfully overcome rapid and complex changes, as well as become a better rival to competitive organizations (Chirani & Hasanzadeh 2013). The fourth section of the article is dedicated to the explanation of entrepreneurship’s effectiveness. Here, the authors present and discuss their main findings; these are the main components of the organizational entrepreneurship: “entrepreneurial tendency” and “entrepreneurial management” (Chirani & Hasanzadeh 2013, p. 67). Entrepreneurial tendency operates with the three following aspects: risky commitments, the freshness of ideas (innovation), and pioneering (willingness to imply new ideas and suggestions).

Entrepreneurial management, in return, should focus on change and opportunity, offer a broad perspective when making a decision, following changes, and, if necessary, take risks and derive benefits from the outcomes of these risks if it is possible. Aspects of entrepreneurial management are also presented in the article: strategic and resource orientation, organization culture, as well as reward philosophy and management structure (Chirani & Hasanzadeh 2013, p. 68). The section ’empirical works’ is used by the authors to refer to the previous works in the field and to emphasize the importance of the middle manager’s inefficient organizational entrepreneurship. At last, the authors provide a conclusion where they briefly summarize their findings and proposals.

Research Method

The research method implied in the article is qualitative: the authors reviewed the articles and books written on corporate entrepreneurship and drew their conclusions from these examinations. The authors also critically approached the information from the articles written earlier and compared it to the data presented in the new articles; the research was not limited by the authors’ point of view, although they presented it too. Overall, the research was conducted using the data (empirical and theoretical) from the previous researches, as well as the authors’ findings.

Evaluation of the Article

The article is written in a comprehensible, clear language and will be useful not only to scientists and specialists in the field but also to the students who have just begun their studies. The order of the sections, presented in the article, is logical and justified by the research’s aim. However, while some of the sections are presented and discussed briefly, the section ‘explanation of effective factors on entrepreneurship’ is used by the authors to present much more detailed information than in the other sections. On the one hand, it is comprehensible, because through this data the authors can support their suggestions (Chirani & Hasanzadeh 2013, p. 68).

On the other hand, if the authors aim to stress the importance of corporate entrepreneurship, they should have discussed its necessity more precisely so that the reader could understand why this topic is important. In the article, only one paragraph is given to the necessity of organizational entrepreneurship (Chirani & Hasanzadeh 2013, p. 66). To support the findings, the authors could have conducted an experiment to gain their empirical evidence, or they should have overviewed a bigger number of sources (there are only 17 sources presented). Moreover, the articles that the authors used as references were the studies mostly from the 1990s or 2000s, so it is not clear whether the findings from these studies are obsolete or not.

However, the article provides a very intelligible explanation of organizational entrepreneurship, its aspects, and affective factors. No redundant information is provided; all sources are presented correctly, and the data is summarized efficiently. Although the introduction could have been shorter, the conclusion of the paper provides the reader with accurate outcomes and thoughtful notes from the authors. Moreover, further proposals are also presented in the conclusion: “senior managers must pay attention to entrepreneurship generally and organizational entrepreneurship specifically” (Chirani & Hasanzadeh 2013, p. 69). Other studies also support the opinion that CE “plays an important role as a key tool” in a manager’s work (Corbett et al. 2013). These proposals are supported by the findings of the research.

Conclusion

This article has provided information about the types of entrepreneurship and their main advantages and disadvantages. The importance of organizational entrepreneurship to large corporations, its ability to solve complex problems, and adjust to the changing environment were also discussed by the authors. With the help of this article, I learned to understand how entrepreneurial tendencies and management work connect and what features or aspects they have. Especially useful for me was to understand the resource orientation of organizations, as well as the organization culture, and how the organization culture can influence the other aspects.

Article #2

Title and Authors

The article Linking Two Dimensions of Organizational Creativity To Firm Performance: The Mediating Role of Corporate Entrepreneurship and the Moderating Role Of Environment was written by Polish doctoral student Katarzyna Bratnicka and Professor Mariusz Bratnicki from the University of Economics in Katowice. It was published in Advances in Business-Related Scientific Research Journal in 2013.

Summary

The authors examine the role of creativity in entrepreneurship strategy and firm performance. Although the authors state that creativity has been examined regarding its micro-level characteristics, little research was devoted to the creativity on the organizational level (Bratnicka & Bratnicki 2013). A particular framework is developed in this paper; it implies that entrepreneurial behavior is directly influenced by the organizational creativity that, in return, affects the firm’s performance (Bratnicka & Bratnicki 2013). Bratnicka and Bratnicki (2013, p. 155) approach “several significant studies [that] have shaped the construct of creativity” and create a figure to present the findings of these studies in a table. They proceed, providing detailed descriptions of relations between creativity and performance/corporate entrepreneurship/organizational environment.

Each of the theoretical overviews is followed by a proposition; these propositions are drawn from the information presented in various sources. The propositions can be interpreted as the main findings of the article: innovations and usefulness need to be regarded as distinct elements of creativity; organizational creativity is supposed to improve firm’s performance; creativity and corporate entrepreneurship relate positively to each other; the environment can “moderate the relationship between organizational creativity” and firm performance/corporate entrepreneurship (Bratnicka & Bratnicki 2013). It also can strengthen the ties between the firm’s performance and corporate entrepreneurship.

The authors also provide the reader with discussions of the outcomes and suggested propositions; they stress that the study contributed to the theory of organizational creativity and pointed out the importance of environment towards creativity (Bratnicka & Bratnicki 2013). The perspective used in the article covers corporate entrepreneurship – this was not done in the previous researches, argue the authors. Moreover, the paper is useful for practitioners too, since it approaches the successful implementation of organizational creativity in corporate entrepreneurship (Bratnicka & Bratnicki 2013). The limitations of the study (e.g. inconsistent measurement of organizational performance) are also explicitly addressed by the authors; several ideas are presented as suggestions for further research.

References to further reading and their value are also explained in the article; almost all references used by the authors during the research were written in the 2000s or 2010s, which implies that the results of these researches are of current interest.

Research Method

The research method implemented in the study was the following: the authors approached and analyzed the existing theoretical and empirical material on creativity. As they state, they used “the pathbreaking works [to] develop a conceptual model” and label organizational creativity as the basis of a dynamic theory that they present in the article (Bratnicka & Bratnicki 2013, p. 154). The authors also develop their theory based on the relationship between organizational creativity and other concepts, presented in the academic literature. After each section of reviewed academic literature and findings, the authors present their proposal based on the analysis. Overall, there are five proposals; the fifth proposal is divided into several parts. To extend the theory the authors have examined, they address “the mediating role of corporate entrepreneurship” in the creativity literature (Bratnicka & Bratnicki 2013, p. 159). Thus, the research method is based on the analysis of the creativity and entrepreneurship literature; the conclusions are drawn from the outcomes of the analysis.

Evaluation of the Article

The article presents valuable information for all scholars, scientists, and professionals in the field. It is a good example of a thorough analysis. Moreover, the article is logically structured, written in comprehensive language; the sections of the article are neither too small, nor too big to hinder the reading and understanding of the research. Almost all sources in the research were published in the years 2000-2013, so the authors can guarantee that the information they are analyzing is not obsolete.

Another advantage of the article is that it approaches the question that has been neglected by most scholars: does creativity have an important role in organizations with complex environments? It was suggested by the authors and supported by other studies that creativity indeed influences the high performance of the firm and helps to use new behavioral patterns in unexpected situations (Weinzimmer, Michel & Franczak 2011). However, only this study has successfully proven that corporate entrepreneurship, organizational creativity, and the environment in the firm are connected and that the theoretical model that examines these three aspects has its issues that should not be neglected (Bratnicka & Bratnicki 2013). The evidence, brought by the authors, is valid and provided in big, but not abundant amounts.

However, when I read this article, I noticed that the domains presented in the study are reviewed only by certain categories. It is comprehensible since all the three domains, analyzed by the authors, are broad, and it would not be possible for the authors to approach them and consider all their complex aspects in one research.

Nevertheless, I believe that some of the explanations or discussions could be left out since the authors had already presented them earlier. Although the article is written professionally, some of the paragraphs could be avoided, since they only repeat the authors’ thought and are not necessary.

Conclusion

This article has helped me to understand how organizational creativity and corporate entrepreneurship can be connected and how they influence the firm’s financial performance. Moreover, it was also important to understand that a firm has not only to be ready to implement new ideas but also to regard its performance and how it affects the implementation of such ideas. I have also learned that, although creativity was believed to have little impact on organizations, it has the potential to improve the employees’ performance, as well as the company’s management paradoxes. Corporate entrepreneurship is supposed to positively influence organizational creativity and vice versa. This fact can be helpful to all managers that prefer strategic entrepreneurship practices. At last, it was also helpful to learn that environment can moderate relationships between all three dimensions that the authors analyzed in this study.

Article #3

Title and Authors

The article Board structure and corporate entrepreneurship: A case study of the U.K was written by Satirenjit Kaur Johl, Alistair Bruce, and Martin Binks for the African Journal of Business Management in 2011. The first author teaches at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS in Malaysia, while the other two authors are from the University of Nottingham in England, United Kingdom.

Summary

The authors approach two questions in the study: do the outsiders influence corporate entrepreneurship and do the outside board of directors affect it? Are the size of the board, frequency of board, and board committee meetings able to influence corporate entrepreneurship/ and/or entrepreneurial activities?

The authors provide background information necessary for the understanding of the research and its history; reference several studies that were used during the research and explain what theories or data from these studies are relevant for the research.

The authors proceed and present the connection between corporate governance and corporate entrepreneurship. According to them, since corporate entrepreneurship is often involved in risky situations, it has to be managed (governed) professionally (Johl, Bruce & Binks 2011). Moreover, executives can benefit from some of the entrepreneurial decisions if governance does not pay enough attention to them.

The positive and negative sides of insider and outsider board of directors are also discussed. To support their suggestions or interpretations, the authors provide various data from different sources and analyze this data to understand what type of board of directors has a better impact on corporate entrepreneurship (Johl, Bruce & Binks 2011). At the end of the section, two contradictory proposals are suggested.

Outside director ownership and board size are also reviewed by the authors who discuss if these two aspects can have an impact on corporate entrepreneurship. The same approach is chosen in these two sections as in the previous: the authors provide various examples of advantages and disadvantages of the aspects and discuss them, supporting their assumptions with references from different sources. Thus, the theoretical background has an important role in this study. Board and sub-committee meetings were also approached. The results have shown that corporate governance was very different in various companies; it was also stated that the board size and both the amount of board and sub-committee meetings negatively influenced the entrepreneurial activities of the organizations.

Research Method

The research method used by the authors is stated in the introduction of the article. The mixed-method approach (quantitative and qualitative), as well as the triangulation method, were used to confirm or deny the proposals (Johl, Bruce & Binks 2011). Questionnaires, interviews, as well as secondary data, were used during the research. One-hundred companies were chosen for the study, but only forty-two took part in it; six case studies were used by the authors (Johl, Bruce & Binks 2011). To select the case studies, the score graph was used. Also, as the authors notice, “the study used bivariate correlation analysis” that was suitable for the study’s sample size (Johl, Bruce & Binks 2011). It is also necessary to know that the research conducted in this paper is based on another research project and uses two indexes to compare corporate entrepreneurship and corporate governance.

Evaluation of the Article

The significant advantage of this research is its methodology, i.e. usage of the mixed-method approach (quantitative and qualitative). Such an approach allowed the authors to receive more precise and valid results that are backed up by the evidence that they have gathered from their interviews and questionnaires. The level of professionalism is also indicated by the authors’ ability to present the research and the data in a clear, comprehensive way. I believe that background information, provided by the authors, is also an advantage of the research since it brings the reader important information on the history of the research and introduces the main issues that are examined in the research.

Contradictory opinions are presented in each section of the article, thus allowing the reader to form an independent opinion on the matter. The article has a neat and logical structure, provides detailed information about the project and its results, and addresses the limitations and suggestions for future research.

Generally, I think I can agree with the findings, although it also should be noted that these findings are only suitable for U.K. corporations and organizations. This, in my opinion, is the biggest limitation of the article – its results are valid for the organizations that exist in the U.K. environment. The results of the research are not completely applicable to other countries; however, such a project still has significant value for the corporate entrepreneurship researchers.

Conclusion

This article has shown me that corporate governance is often connected to good organizational performance, although this thesis does not apply to all countries. I have also learned that the structure of the board, as well as its size, can impact the firm’s performance negatively or positively.

However, if the members of the board focus only on the control, it can harm the company and corporate entrepreneurship. It is also not clear if independent non-executive directors are as helpful to the companies and their employees as some belief them to be. At last, the frequency of board meetings was proven to have a direct impact on entrepreneurial activities, states the article.

Reference List

Bratnicka, K & Bratnicki, M 2013, ‘Linking two dimensions of organizational creativity to firm performance: the mediating role of corporate entrepreneurship and the moderating role of environment’, Advances in Business-Related Scientific Research Journal, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 153-163.

Chirani, E & Hasanzadeh, R 2013, ‘The aspects of organizational entrepreneurship in competition environment’, Kuwait Chapter of the Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, vol. 2, no.11, pp. 65-70.

Corbett, A, Covin, G, O’Connor, C & Tucci L 2013, ‘Corporate entrepreneurship: state‐of‐the‐art research and a future research agenda’, Journal of Product Innovation Management, vol. 30, no. 5, pp. 812-820.

Johl, K, Bruce, A & Binks, M 2011, ‘Board structure and corporate entrepreneurship: a case study of UK’, African Journal of Business Management, vol. 5, no. 34, pp. 13254-13266.

Weinzimmer, G, Michel, J & Franczak L 2011, ‘Creativity and firm-level performance: the mediating effects of action orientation’, Journal of Managerial Issues, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 62-82.