Research Proposal: How HR Helps to Built Competitive Advantage

How HR Helps to Built Competitive Advantage

Introduction

There are many questions that the business can have. Some of them are answered but needed justification, while others are just intentionally left to avoid answering. No matter how many questions a business may have, a good business model is helpful to analyze the concept of the business’s nature. In addition, there is a growing research study regarding the collaboration of the human resources in the aim of the business to establish its own competitive advantage.

Background of the Study and Problem Statement

Competitive advantage is a position a firm occupies against its competitors. A business that had the advantage among the competitors can surpass the expected revenue and had a possibility to be the leading firm in the business sector or industry.  Many forms of competitive advantage cannot be sustained indefinitely because the promise of economic rents invites competitors to duplicate the competitive advantage held by any one firm. Accordingly, a firm possesses a sustainable competitive advantage when its value-creating processes and position have not been able to be duplicated or imitated by other firms ( 2009). But can the HR apply its concept in making the business obtain its advantage?

Research Objectives

The research has discovered certain purposes in the study. First is to identify the opportunity available in the human resources to help the entire business in building competency. And second is to support the human resource in its strategies and innovation that is commonly being applied on the workforce.

Research Questions

The research identified essential pieces of questions that can help the study in the pursuance of the right answer in determining the competitive advantage with the help of the HR.

1.      Is the advantage of one business to another is based on the difference of their price or is it based on how many buyers they have?

2.      Is a good supplier is another advantage or the availability or resources counted?

3.      Is the prevention for the rival to enter your domain makes you more profitable or is it better if the there are many competitors around?

4.      Is the advantage can be gained on the workforce?

Literature Review

The Virgin Airline’s outrageous connection to media gave the business a huge market competency advantage. The accessibility to the media such as television, radio, and even newspapers gave the business and the other business under the Virgin Group give the opportunity to promote each other. This is an example of a competitive advantage among the brand leader. Even a small-scale business can adopt the specific strategies to gain the competitive advantage. A competitive advantage exists when a firm has a product or service that is perceived by its target market customers as better than that of its competitors. Unfortunately, entrepreneurs are often confronted with two myths surrounding the creation of a competitive advantage. One is that most good business opportunities are already gone. The other is that small firm’s cannot compete well with big companies. In addition, the advantage can be gained from the analysis called the Porter’s five forces of analysis which measures the level of competition in the industry. It summarized as the bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of suppliers, rivalry among existing competitors, and threat of new competitors. This categories helps the business analysts to determine the future impacts of the competition in the business and how to gain advantage (2005; 2007). There are also suggestions stating that advantage can begin in the internal part of the entire organization which is common on the human resources because they are the nursery of the employees that trains and develops them (2003)

Methodologies

The applied methodology of the research is the comparative case study which is very effective to measure the factors involving in the fluctuations of the derivative markets. Through the past studies the requirements as much as the questions can be identified. The comparative case study method can provide the current study to fill the gaps in the literature. Furthermore, the case study method is applied to invite the researchers to answer the main topic. 

Analysis and Conclusion

It was identified that the HR can help built the competitive advantage through the continuous practices and operating systems designed to enhance the workforces’ ability, motivation, and opportunity to perform well. Through the supportive company, industry and societal context there is an expanded employee potential and increased discretionary effort that can help improve company performance, systemic response to employee effort and improving worker outcomes.

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