Dies ist eine Hausarbeit im Fach Dynamic Strategic Management: Much of the strategic management literature defines strategic success as establishing a competitive advantage. The existence of a competitive advantage however is often considered to be indicated by higher profitability. This is problematic, as it can lead to neglecting other strategic goals that manifest themselves in the long-term and may only be achieved by forgoing current profits. It is therefore worth moving away from a quantitative profit-focused understanding of strategic outcomes towards a more qualitative one. We should remember that Andrews (1971) describes strategy as ‘the pattern of objectives, purposes, or goals and the major policies and plans for achieving these goals, stated in such a way as to define (…) the kind of company (the business) is’ as opposed to merely a mean to establish higher profit revenue.
To counteract the biased focus on superior profit as the main desired outcome, this analysis of the soft-drink producer Premium Cola will consider long-term indicators other than profitability as evidence for a competitive advantage. Taking a firm as social entity approach (Jordan and Grant, 2012) the effectiveness of Premium Cola’s strategic focus on stakeholder management to achieve a competitive advantage will be investigated. More specifically the external industry environment and the internal capabilities of the firm will be examined to understand on what basis Premium Cola competes. It will be shown, how focussing on stakeholder satisfaction instead of generating profit, results in a sustained competitive differentiation advantage.
It is important to note that the analysis is purely based on publically available resources. It may therefore entail a certain element of interpretation by the author, especially since Premium Cola publicises certain information deliberately, which
should therefore be considered part of the strategy.

Kontakt: Reneé Paula Horster / Download