The value of strategic positioning and differentiation in the non-life reinsurance industry in South Africa
Notable in strategic management research is a paradigm shift from industry/marketfactors as determinants of competitive strategy to a resource-based view. This studyfocuses on the extent to which firms in the reinsurance industry use resources forstrategic positioning and differentiation. A qualitative case study approach has beenadopted for this study. On the basis of open-ended questions, interviews wereconducted with 6 executives of the 6 chosen non-life reinsurance companies. Inaddition to interviews, company annual reports were used. Results obtained point tosimilarities in broader categorisation of resources, namely human capital, financialresources, information systems and organisational culture. Despite similarities in thebroader grouping of resources, uniqueness in resources and competitive advantagederived therefrom is in the attributes of each of the resources that a reinsurance firmown. The main driver for basing positioning and differentiation strategies is thatresources are controllable and manipulative compared to industry factors. Thoughthe results support the underlying principles of the resource-based view, it is notablethat its prescriptive nature with regard to resource characteristics, does not hold forsome of the resources such as human resources, which are not perfectly immobile.
Alternative title: | a resource-based perspective. |
---|---|
Year of publication: |
2005-11-30
|
Authors: | Ncube, Hardman |
Subject: | Strategic management | Resource management |
Saved in:
freely available
Saved in favorites
Similar items by subject
-
O'Shannassy, T, (2008)
-
CBM : an integrated crowd-sourcing business model
D'Andrea, Alessia, (2015)
-
Brulhart, Franck, (2017)
- More ...