RECENT ASSIGNMENT

Faculty of Business and Enterprise
ACC80011
Strategic Cost Management
Individual Assignment
In today’s rapidly changing business environment, organisations must learn to respond quickly to the challenges through their choice of competitive strategies. Porter stated that “in formulating its strategy, an organisation must thoroughly understand the industry in which it operates.”
You are required to conduct research into contemporary competitive strategy. How does the research align with Porter’s Generic Competitive Strategies of cost leadership; differentiation; and focus? This research will include a full analysis of Porter’s theory on competing strategies as well as identifying and analysing contemporary research on competing strategies used by companies or industries over the past 10 years. You will need to consider contemporary challenges that could shape the mode of competition and this should be done within the context of a particular industry. You will also need to identify any trends in particular strategies used. Are these strategies industry specific; time specific (for example during and after the GFC); or if is there no particular trend, highlight the factors that may have influenced a particular strategic choice.
Specific Requirements:
1. Literature Review: Research into Competitive Strategies
Conduct extensive research into competitive strategies. Your research should by academic in nature and therefore reference to Peer reviewed papers inn EBSCO Host Database is required. Your research is twofold: 1. Thoroughly research Porter’s Generic Strategy approach; and 2. Conduct thorough empirical research into competitive strategies actually used in the contemporary business environment.
2. Analysis: Identification of Trends (if any):
Discuss any trends emerging from your research; highlight particular industries or types of organisations which have chosen a particular competitive strategy. Discuss the success or otherwise of the adoption of the particular strategies and any issues or limitations that the researchers identified.
3. Knowledge integration:
Using your research in requirement 1 as a basis for evaluation, present an analysis of research findings in the context of Porter’s Generic Strategy Approach.
Note:
• Present your research in an essay format with approximate word length of 2,500 – 3,000 words
• Due Date: 21st April 2016
• This assignment is to be done individually and submitted via Turnitin.