International business class (Discussion Board) - Assignment Example

March 25, What are the four advanced factors that Porter writes about and Texas cotton farmers The four advanced factors are; factor condition, demand conditions, related and supporting industries and a firm’s strategy, structure and rivalry could cause the differences in competitive advantage. Firm Strategy, Structure and Rivalry- the business environment is affected by dynamic conditions and that direct competition pushes a firm to constantly improve their competitiveness. Demand conditions-a huge demand in an economy places pressure on firms to improve their competitiveness via creation of more innovative products.

Related supporting industries-spatial proximity of upstream and downstream industries enhances the sharing of information and this enables a continuous sharing of ideas and innovation, which can create competitive bias in a certain type of industry. Factor conditions- against the traditional thought, he argued that key factor of production are created and not inherited. The key factors are skilled labour, capita and infrastructure. These are the ones that can create a competitive advantage. He referred to those factors as the “diamond of national advantage”, by implication he asserted that it is the inter-linkage of these factors that would actually precede the attainment of the competitive advantage.

Further, he pointed out that government policy and the chance of event had a role to play in the inter-linkage and hence a national competitive advantage factor. Texas cotton farmers have in recent years been facing stiff competition from other overseas farmers, particularly China and India. The provision of subsidy-government policy, a factor that affects the inter-linkage of other factors may have tilted productions in favour of the Asian giants. However, demand conditions in the American market for cotton products, new business strategies being employed and the existence of a system of powerful infrastructural development in the region might tilt the scale in their favor.

The four advanced factors that Porter writes about are Demand Conditions, Related and Supporting Industries, Factor Conditions, and Firm Strategy, Structure, and Rivalry. Texas cotton farmers were able to use Porters Diamond model to redefine their business strategy in order to remain competitive. One of the ways they did this was to upgrade on their machines and technologies. This propelled them into the new millennium and provided support for them to remain competitive in the national and global market.

This helped them build up the industry into a new more effective and efficient operation. So national brands forces local brands to be more competitive and to advance their technologies in order to remain financially viable in the market.Texas cotton farmers might find relevance, the application of Porters theory in competitive advantage when analyses of their competitive advantage against those of their rivals are scrutinized. However, I defer with the notion that the Texas farmers actually use the Porters diamond model in order to gain a competitive edge, rather the model is used to analyse their situation.

Nonetheless, I have to content that the four advanced factors have been mentioned correctly. Upgrading of machines and technologies is an example of a firm strategy, structure and rivalry. Indeed, such may be introduced by firm to gain the competitive edge. Finally, an assertion that ‘national brand forces local brands to be competitive and to advance their technologies, so as to remain financially viable in the market’ is not supported by any theoretical framework in International Business or in economics.