In: Operations Management
please analyze the resource base of Wikipedia in terms of competativie advantage using the VRIO framework
The resource base of Wikipedia in terms of competitive advantage using VRIO framework can be analyzed as:
Value. Valuable resources are those that help organizations to increase the value offered to the customers. Wikipedia has plethora of valuable resources in the form of content it offers to range of readers.
Rarity. Resources that can only be acquired by one or few companies are considered rare. When more than few companies have the same resource or capability, it results in competitive parity. The resources in the form of content which are available at Wikipedia can be found at the link source mentioned at the bottom of each article.
Imitability. A company that has valuable and rare resource can achieve at least temporary competitive advantage. In that terms, the content of Wikipedia are already imitated informations from the link sources and Wikipedia does least contribute to fresh content.
Organization. A firm that is capable to exploit the valuable, rare and imitable resources can achieve sustained competitive advantage. In that sense, Wikipedia has gained a lot competitive advantage over the similar firms.