How Information Resources can be used by a Company (Essay Sample)

Resource Based View Approach
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In the contemporary business world, businesses are in constant competition by designing strategies on how to outdo their competitors. Resource Based View (RBV) is an approach designed to achieve a competitive advantage over competitors and it immerged in 1980s and 1990s. Those who backed it up argued that companies should focus inside the company and to get sources of competitive advantage instead of figuring the competitive environment (Jurevicius, 2013). This paper tries to explain how RBV can be used for analysis of how information resources can be used by a company in order to gain a competitive advantage. The paper will use real world company examples to back up the explanations.
Information resources simply refer to information and related resources. Examples of company information resources include; personnel, market research, Management Information Systems (MIS), learning and training, accounting and finance, sales and marketing, research and development, customer satisfaction, sustainability and business development (EBSCO Inc. 2011)
An organization can equip its personnel with appropriate skills and capabilities by intensive training since highly skilled personnel are more competitive. Professional Personnel of a company can generate crucial information resources when at fieldwork. They can convince customers for example in insurance companies to insure their properties and assure their lives too by use of appropriate marketing communication that is informative and convincing. For instance, the kind of personnel in GEICO insurance company in USA has remarkable staff and that is the reason as to why the insurance company has a strong brand name.
Market research can be carried out by the management of a company and establish a strong brand name of the product or service they can be producing. Market research can further enable a company to reach certain market niches that can establish a source of customers. RBV should ensure that the market research is involves both social and opinion research to gather information from prospected customers. Afterwards, this information can be used as a source of competitive advantage since the company is aware of what their prospected customers need (Smith & Albaum, 2012).
Management Information Systems can be used to manage company employees’ database and keep up to date records thereby minimizing inventory costs that need to be up to date. For instance a company like Dell Incorporation that deals with manufacture of Dell computers uses inventories and large employee database and thus it needs a database. MIS can be used to provide strategic and up to date data about the company from which a competitive advantage like efficiency in management can be attained (Oz, 2009).
A company should design a customer satisfaction strategy that should surpass customer expectations. A company like Microsoft Incorporation usually conduct online surveys to inquire from customers what they feel should be improved to meet their tastes and preferences and the efficiency that programs should have. Developing questionnaires, involving employees and understanding what causes customer satisfaction through well designed questionnaires and surveys can generate strategic information resources to promote a competitive advantage to the company (Allen, Roche & Hill, 2007)
In conclusion, it can be noted that RBV approach is a chief factor in a company that can be employed to create a substantial competit...