Gaining Competitive Advantage through Marketing Strategy - Coursework Example

Gaining Competitive Advantage of a Firm through Marketing Strategy Contents Competitive Advantage 2 Marketing Strategy and Competitive Advantage 6 Porter’s Strategies 7 Ohmae’s Framework 9 How Marketing Strategy Can Help Achieve Competitive Advantage 10 Competitive Advantage through the Marketing Mix 14 Facts and Specific Examples 15 Conclusion 18 References 20 Gaining Competitive Advantage of a Firm through Marketing Strategy The author intends to introduce in this paper to explain the selected topic ‘’Gaining competitive advantage of a firm through marketing strategy’’ and broaden the concept of the understanding in elaborative manner in order to evaluate marketing strategies which help in attaining competitive advantage. The author has chosen the research topic ‘’Gaining competitive advantage of a firm through marketing strategy’’ where the literature would be evaluated and evolve the presence of the factors on Marketing, Strategy, Competitive Advantage and so forth. For the purpose of writing the second essay the author chose to explain and seek to compare and contrast of the marketing mix and service marketing through the use of specific examples through which a firm can gain competitive advantage. Each section will include in-detail support against the aspects which have been covered in first essay. Competitive Advantage Competitive advantage is described as the strategic benefit that one business organization enjoys over its competitors within the same industry. Gaining competitive advantage makes an organization more robust and places it in higher position in the business world. Kotler (2008) in his explanation of the organizations’ competitive advantage discuss that any organization wish to gain the market competitiveness must render the service with a justifiable price. The tern justifiable price does not mean to the actual value of the product or service instead, the price in relation to the value of the product. The theory that forms the premise of competitive advantage combats some of the criticisms about it. This theory was espoused by Michael Porter, who suggested that nations and enterprises should follow policies and principles that result in high quality products which in turn can be sold at high prices in the market. Porter insisted on ‘productivity growth’ as the main emphasis that should be laid on national economic strategies. Competitive advantage is steeped in the idea that cheap labor is omnipresent and natural resources are not always for a thriving economy (Isobel Doole, Robin Lowe, 2008 ). Competitive advantage takes place when a business procures or devises a unique quality or combination of qualities that enable it to outshine its competitors. These qualities can include to natural resources, such as good quality ores or economically priced power and energy, or even access to talented pool of human resources. Modern technologies like information technology may be either be made a fundamental part of the products or used in manufacturing them. Information technology has become such an indispensible component of the new day business world that it can also play a critical and valuable in providing competitive advantage by allowing a business to operate and deliver better than their competitors. Since time immemorial, the main issue of information dissemination has been a critical hurdle in achieving competitive advantage. But today this is no longer the case, and business can leverage IT to optimal advantage, especially for formulating their marketing strategies. Through making use of the internet as a ‘middle man’ businesses can easily obtain critical competitive advantage by designing attractive websites as well as other effective marketing materials such as banners, brochures, advertising campaigns that can be run on social media websites etc (Hooley, Hooley Graham, 2008 ). Competitive advantage thus refers to gaining the overall market advantage to the rivals in relation to the product vale and the service provided. Considering the factors responsible to the advantages Davidson, (1977) identified that the organization could gain the competitive advantage by means of providing the added value to the product, knowledge, providing information to the customers and lost cost to the products not compromising the value. Porter’s (1998) in his competitive matrix showed that an organization could gain market advantage in various means. Among which common terms are used and practiced by the marketer are: cost leadership, differentiation and focus. The matrix prescribed by Michael Porter is as under (Michael E. Porter, 1998 ). Michael Porter has provided us with a detailed theory on scrutinizing any business’s competitive standing. Marketing managers extensively use Porter’s model in intricate strategic planning. Though it is simple and precise but it has proved its worth in a number of business situations. As discussed earlier, any business is looking to earn more profits and also wants to stay ahead of others and make more customers while retaining the existing ones. Porter’s matrix focuses exactly on these issues. It is a strategy tool that has been helping CEOs and managers a great deal in deciding which way would be best for the company to head towards. Marketing strategies involve a number of things due to which it is bound to be complex and difficult to handle. The Porter’s five forces model allows things to be straight forward and present concepts in rather easily available formats. His matrix comprises of five basic competitive forces such as, what are the factors that restrict new businesses to enter in the market, risks of substitutes, negotiating power of buyers and suppliers, and finally the intense competition among existing rivals. To some strategists the sixth force influencing the entire matrix comes from government (Richard Gibbs, Andrew Humphries, 2009 ). In the following lines we are going to examine each force in the matrix in short detail. Number one is the barriers to entry, which can be explained as the size of ease or complexity for the new comers to set up a their business. This may include economies of scale, extent of financing inputs, government policies and taxation measures and scope of product. There may be a lot other already in the market doing the same thing as you do. So according to the matrix, the second field after barriers to crack down on is analysis of substitutes of your products and services. Would it be possible for you to create monopoly? Would you be able to provide such quality and standard that others are not offering or may not be able to offer in near future? Are you charging more than others do? Next important factor to be considered in Porter’s matrix is the extent of bargaining power of customers that would address questions like to what extent is your product in demand, what customers know about you, can they bargain, how cleverly distinguished your brand is and also the degree of substitutes (Manuel Handlechner, 2008 ). Marketing Strategy and Competitive Advantage Competitive strategy consists of creating and sustaining competitive advantage in all areas of business (Porter, 1980c). The very aim of competitive strategy appears to be the achievement of the firm’s sustainable competitive advantage which helps in improving the firm’s business performance (Bharadwaj, Varadarajan & Fahy, 1993). Again, marketing is an area of business that is vital for deriving the profitability of the firm. Marketing strategy essentially consists in the firm identifying the target market, segregating the whole into small segments, selecting those which are most promising and then focusing on the selected segments; the firm also designs a marketing mix and seeks to act based on this (Kotler, et al., 1999, p. 106). Marketing strategy also consists of the firm seeking to achieve better customer satisfaction than that which rival firms in the market can achieve (p. 109). The strategy helps to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the firm as well as the performances of rivals in the market. It allows for the firm in better defining the market or product positioning that the firm wants to achieve followed by the design of the marketing mix (Philip Kotler, 1999 ). Firms that are successful relate their marketing practices to attaining competitive advantage. Marketing strategy in such successful firms successfully identify the key success factors embedded in their business, segment their markets so as to derive maximum and decisive competitive advantage, analyze and measure their main sources of competitive advantage, anticipate competitor response, exploit new competitive advantages better than their rivals and also focus their resources on achieving specific competitive advantages (Thompson & Martin., 1999, pp. 8-9). Marketing involves a strategy driven by the market and the resources are used in achieving maximum customer satisfaction with the products or services. Indeed, Ohmae (1982) observes that all business strategy concerns with competitive advantage, which, he says is the primary goal of strategy (John Thompson, Frank Martin, Thompson, 1999). One way to use a market-driven strategy is to focus on key segments in the market and target specific sales of specific products based on the ideal portfolio mix. This would require the channeling of resources like capital and technology to this particular sector to derive maximum competitive advantage over the competing firms. Another way would be to analyze the relative strengths and weaknesses of the firm as compared with the main competitors in the market and target specific areas in which the firm has an advantage over the rivals. Still another way would be to think of new products or even new ways to do business. But, another more radical way would also be to adopt a radical change to the way in which the firm does its business by questioning its historical assumptions and by changing its legacy systems (Michael A. Hitt, R. Duane Ireland, Robert E. Hoskisson, 2010 ). Porter’s Strategies The actual means for gaining such competitive advantage through marketing strategy can be done through the generic strategies outlined by Porter (1985). These are cost leadership and differentiation which are based upon four primary factors, viz., product, price, promotion and place. By cost leadership, a firm tries to achieve low prices that can help it improve its profits. It may do this by several ways. For instance, firms can replace traditional brick-and-mortar styled firms with online e-commerce alternatives like B2B or B2C models which are both cost-efficient and increasingly popular owing to the significant advances made in internet technology. To take another example, manufacturing firms can also do away with intermediaries like retailers and distributors and sell direct either through their own outlets or through online channels only (Michael E. Porter, 1998 ). A notable example of such a firm is Dell, Inc. which popularized the concept of direct selling, marketing and customer servicing using internet. Dell further expanded its aptitude to meet customers’ needs by categorizing customers into specific categories. Customers were categorized into Relationship buyers, big businesses and institutions, and Transaction buyers, small business and home PC users. The Relational buyers composed of a significantly larger portion of Dell’s business but also had diverse needs than Transaction buyers. Every relational buyer was assigned a spokesperson who lead the business and organization through each stage of the buying experience. By combining both Relational and Transaction buyers into their business system reiterate purchases were quick and easy, purchasing history could be consulted, and follow up customer service was able to be more efficient. However, in a competitive market, price competition is intense and the standardization of inputs or products sold implies low switching costs. This results in a gradually saturated market environment in which it is difficult to maintain price differentials. In such a situation, differentiation of the product or services sold by the firm appears the only alternative. Such product differentiation requires value addition to the product and which added value makes the customers willing to buy the product even at a premium. This can also be achieved by targeting specific group of customers or target market. In all such cases, the firm only tries to add value across or along the value chain and deliver better quality to the customers and competitive advantage to itself. Ohmae’s Framework Unlike Porter (1985), Ohmae (1983) describes a framework based on three C’s namely, Customer, Competitor and Corporation. Obviously, it is the customers around whom the entire business revolves. This calls for a study of customer preferences in a particular industry, country or target market. This also calls for differentiation of products based on consumer preferences. However, the competitors also do adopt similar processes. Hence, the particular are in which competitive advantage is desired and planned to be achieved needs to be determined. Such areas may include price, image and performance characteristics and so on (Thompson & Martin, 2005). In addition the structure of organizations relating to marketing or other processes also influences how much and in what way such competitive advantage can be achieved. It would be in order, therefore, to see then, how in practice a market driven strategy achieves competitive advantage (Ohmae, 2002 ). The specific example which can be quoted here is about social media marketing which is gaining quite a buzz lately among business circles. Social media sites are popular among people from all sides of the world which gives businesses an overriding opportunity to develop plans to produce for the entire world. The market size has increased incredibly. One great thing about social media marketing is its ability to help you get inside your competitors’ zone very easily. Their fan pages can be viewed by everyone, just like them and you can delve deep down into what strategies they are applying to get noticed. Are they using these sites to generate lead and then staying in contact with their subscribers through email. How Marketing Strategy Can Help Achieve Competitive Advantage Marketing strategy needs to be a planned process. The main goal of such effort is to achieve better or quicker the desired bases of competitive advantage. Essentially, an organizational business strategy consists in utilizing the core competencies and unique resources of the firm to attain the bases of competitive advantage (Johnson, Scholes & Whittington, 2007; Thompson & Martin, 2005). Competitive advantage is achieved by means of three essential factors, viz., the marketing strategy of the firm, the successful implementation of this strategy and the context of the larger industry in which the firm operates and as explained by using Porter’s five forces framework of competitive forces (Sudarshan, 1995). In this context, it would be in order to understand Porter’s generic strategies as well as Ansoff’s generic strategies, both of which relate to marketing strategies. This can further help in better understanding how marketing strategy forms an important basis of developing competitive advantage in a firm. Any business you head on to, the presence of an overwhelming amount of competitors in the field would naturally push you to think about the strategies promising to earn you a competitive edge over million others. Creativity is the latest norm of the business world. The pursuit of keeping a competitive edge might be haunting strategists in their dreams. Stride of ever-increasing businesses together with their never-ending marathon of outshining others have offered customers with a variety of products and services to choose from. Modern businesses are constantly employing new and innovative ideas to pull more customers; one such strategy is getting noticed through marketing strategies (Robert E. Hoskisson, Michael A. Hitt, R. Duane Ireland, 2008 ). Intelligent marketing plays a greater part in polishing the image of the business in the entire market. It has been found that the businesses are making headway through excelling market plans and they stay competitive in the long-run if they stay focused on generating fresh ideas to present to their customers. Customers have now more to choose from and customer loyalty can only stay intact if they are provided with better and improved services at reasonable cost. Businesses require a thorough planning and a precise line of attack at the time of their arrival. A great many things are to be analyzed in detail. Your sales goals, what do you expect at the time of commencement, how would you stand out from the rest, which market segment are you targeting first hand, what are the threats and which areas can be deemed as opportunities. All these things are integral parts of business marketing plan, which plays a significant part in letting the business get a competitive advantage over others (Fredrik Nilsson, Birger Rapp, 2005 ). What can be a few things which any business tries to achieve? Very simple, escalating sales graph, sticking current buyers, producing more goods generating more business, earning profit and keep on doing so. But these things are not as simple as they sound. These nail-biting fields are always a part and parcel of any business. They need to be dealt with very carefully if fruitful out-come is expected. While you have defined and meticulously put down your objectives on a piece of paper, next most crucial task is the development of best plans to be employed to get to those well-rounded business objectives. Deployment of marketing strategy asks for a assiduous assessment of your competitors. What are they doing? What prices are they charging? What strategies are they utilizing to get business? Make use of primary and secondary research, these two are the best ways to start your scrutiny of existing market where you are planning to set your foot in. Identifying the number and nature of competitors will present you with a clear picture of what threats and challenges you will be posed with when you are actually in that specific market. This would help you to be prepared before-hand and make your move wisely. Next step after spotting your major rivals is examining their current share. The information on how much budget do they allocate to their advertising projects is also a key factor to understand they profile of market and the developing policies (Jeffrey Pfeffer, 1996 ). In order to constantly work on sales projections, market share forecasts and market trend analyses, marketing specialists are persistently trying to accumulate correct, detailed and significant market data. This is one arduous task to hand which is almost very crucial in staying ahead of others. Starting up your business while you are well-informed about your place in the market and others, would help you to be strong in areas where others are weak. Introduction of better and improved products are sure to earn you an extra profit than others. Packaging does matter a lot. A little effort to come up with eye-catching packaging can go a long way. Selling techniques are one other area that should not be left un-noticed by any means. All these big and small things add up to the most significant study of market strategy. The major areas discussed above had been in use for quite a long time now, it is time that modern businesses have started making use of technology on a large scale to expand the subject of marketing. One such thing is email marketing field. There are a few things that have to be kept in mind while marketing your business through electronic mail. Primary objective that one should keep focused on is the formation of a sound relationship with the people whom you are sending your advertisements and promotions through mail. Such bridging the gap will build a connection of trust between the producer and the customer and will lead to increased customer loyalty. Staying in touch with the customers through email also provides business with an extraordinary advantage of getting to know either the complaints or approvals from customers’ side (Donald Mitchell, Carol Coles, 2003 ). E-mail marketing is highly competitive so the key to stay ahead is to build genuine and strong relationship with your customers by responding to them immediately and taking their suggestions seriously. Their ideas and propositions work as bonus for any business. And on top of that with being loyal to your customer and providing them utmost services and products can earn you that lucrative competitive edge. If you open your mail box and find tons of adds laying in your inbox waiting for you to gain your attention. Which one would you honestly go for? Obviously the one which look familiar, the ones with better promotions, ones with added advantages and the ones who had been responding you straight away regarding any of your concern! Small things count in big success in case of businesses. Competitive Advantage through the Marketing Mix Prof. Neil Borden of Harvard University in the year 1940 first introduced the concept of marketing mix where he identified 12 variable factors responsible. However, latter which were reduced to 4 by J. McCarthy (Know as 4 P’s in marketing mix). You should ask yourself, as a business, that why should customers deal with you? What is that makes you stand out against your competitors. How do you place yourself as a supplier of choice? Asking yourself, these questions will lead to think more rationally and effectively. Also, you must be cognizant of the 4 P’s of marketing, briefly discussed below, which are conversed in detail in Essay 1. • Product. This is definitely needed. Customers today want variety, special, features, choices. These aspects undoubtedly result in more challenges with being able to project the customers’ wants for different products and choices and special features (Robert E. Stevens, David Loudon, 2005 ). Once your product is established you need to explore at other benefits for your customers to want to purchase your products. • Promotion. You have to devise a method for others to become aware of your products Advertising is just one such method. This can be costly and challenging to measure the direct effect and benefit of it. Customers are usually overwhelmed with sales promotions and it may be difficult for you to ensure that your product stands out in their minds. So you have to be very innovative, creative, and persuasive! • Price. This is to create a value to pace on your product, and for the customers involved in doing business with you. Price is the method to generate income and profit. The risk with price is that if you place excessive emphasis on it, you make your product to appear as just another commodity your product to being a commodity. Price then is the only means to differentiate your product from those of your competitors (O'Connell, 2003 ). • Place. Positioning your products in the appropriate place at the appropriate time is key to your achieving a competitive advantage. And it is this aspect that has been usually ignored when it comes to using the appropriate marketing mix. Appropriate positioning can be a very beneficial way to build a reputation as a supplier of choice, create market awareness, manage multiple products and choices, add value and distinguish yourself from your competitors. Facts and Specific Examples Real-life marketing basically entails the great deal of common-sense rationalization; given just a limited number of factors, in an environment of incomplete information and few resources, together with unpredictability and limited timelines. Leveraging the conventional marketing methods thus becomes all the more challenging. Hence, a lot of new products will be made using haphazard or illogical methods and the appropriate manufacturing method may be utilized to eliminate those factors that do not work. The method of the advertising and packaging will be the result of imaginative and creative ideas adopted. The management will then review these, generally by its own instinct to make sure ensure that they are adequate (Papp, 2001 ). A lot of marketing manages use their instinct and past experience to review and manage the intricate and distinct predicaments at hand; they do not refer to any theoretical ideas that are so easily available. This will often be playing by ear, or 'gut-reaction'; where the overall methodology, together with the information available with the customer that has been internalized practically by a way of osmosis, will dictate the quality of marketing adapted. This, intuitive management, is what is sometimes known as 'coarse marketing'. To distinguish it from the refined, apparently pleasing look appreciated by the theorists. Discussed below are examples of competitive advantage that have been achieved through factors besides just the features of the products: Facebook is a fine example of a social media network that has achieved much success through its competitive advantage. A lot of people avail its services, but what is interesting is that donot adopt any of their features even in their own business. This is brilliant, facebook’s competitive advantage is so strong that is simply not replicated elsewhere! One can say the same for iPhone and AppStore. The competitive advantage is the sheer number of developers in the eco-system and definitely not any special feature of the iphone or the Appstore themselves (Chris Treadaway, Mari Smith, 2010 ). The instances of Facebook and the iPhone appear to be more of a network impact as their competitive advantage, but one can say that with confidence that this competitive advantage was earned owing to the choices of its features. Additionally, the manufacturing, design, operations, and adaptability have also resulted in the accomplished competitive advantage. Facebook’s competitive advantage lies not only in the number of users, but in the fact that the owners of this company carry out their operations in a much better way than others in the space. They have leadership qualities and deep acumen and insight about the customer who feel good about talking about social media to the rest of the world (Dan Zarrella, Alison Driscoll, Alison Zarrella, 2011 ). Apple has been manufacture to demonstrate the qualities of a genius and to commence with his design aesthetic. Further, it develops a functionality to lend support to the delivery of this aesthetic. The iOS ecosystem is encompasses this procedure, but it resides in all of Apple’s products and services, ranging from laptops to other retail products. Coca-Cola manufactures and produces carbonated sugar water, and still they have managed to yet they have created one of the most popular and well known brands throughout the world. Cemex manufactures and sells cement, an ordinary commodity on the face of it, yet their focus on exceptionally high operational quality and their and mastery of distributed manufacturing capacities, raw material transmission and currency arbitrage has rendered them the king player in the industry (Charles W. L. Hill, 2006 ). The Oregon Ducks football team play FAST! This innovation transforms the entire game and calls for the whole organization to function in a different way, from play calling methods, to rehearsals to practicing methods. Their benefit on the field is speed, but the real advantage which they enjoy is the flexibility that their staff is able to demonstrate, and their players to completely adapt to this unique and modern method. This ultimately style rendered them to be a national championship team possessing immense caliber. Conclusion It is essential for any business to have an insight on their marketing objectives by performing a well-thought-out analysis of competitor activities. Through this effort, they can disclose points of advantages and create their company as better than others by positioning against a difficulty; marketing product attributes, so that supremacy is attained relative to a specific competitor; or by creating new or improved product, packaging, selling, or merchandising techniques. Uncovering competitor advertising expenditures and strategies can also key to understanding the shape of markets and developing plans (Roger A. Kerin, Steven W. Hartley, William Rudelius, 2010 ). Position your company as a chosen leader. Use proper logistics and marketing as a foundation of your marketing strategy for growth. Recognize what customers expect, how well your competitors execute and how well you work. Find the ways to create a strong competitive marketing program which meets and exceeds buyer requirements. Reengineering your procedure and creating a strong logistics ability is not an at once fix. It takes time and dedication. Do not holdup and miss the prospect to grow customer satisfaction, sales and market share. And once you have begun this strategy and process, it does not come to a standstill. Market and customer needs are constantly changing. This encourages your need to continuously change your abilities, and lead the change, and become a market leader. You must persistently work to improve service, reduce time and reduce costs as your clientele require. References 1. Charles W. L. Hill. (2006 ). Global business today. McGraw-Hill. 2. Chris Treadaway, Mari Smith. (2010 ). Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day. John Wiley and Sons. 3. Dan Zarrella, Alison Driscoll, Alison Zarrella. (2011 ). The Facebook Marketing Book. O'Reilly Media, Inc. 4. Donald Mitchell, Carol Coles. (2003 ). The ultimate competitive advantage. Berrett-Koehler Publishers. 5. Fredrik Nilsson, Birger Rapp. (2005 ). Understanding competitive advantage. Springer. 6. Hooley, Hooley Graham. (2008 ). Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning. New Delhi: Pearson Education India. 7. Isobel Doole, Robin Lowe. (2008 ). International marketing strategy: analysis, development and implementation. Cengage Learning EMEA. 8. Jeffrey Pfeffer. (1996 ). Competitive Advantage Through People: Unleashing the Power of the Work Force. Harvard Business Press. 9. John Thompson, Frank Martin, Thompson. (1999). Strategic Management. Cengage Learning EMEA. 10. Manuel Handlechner. (2008 ). Marketing Strategy. GRIN Verlag. 11. Michael A. Hitt, R. Duane Ireland, Robert E. Hoskisson. (2010 ). Strategic Management: Competitiveness & Globalization, Concepts. Cengage Learning. 12. Michael E. Porter. (1998 ). Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance : with a New Introduction. Simon and Schuster. 13. O'Connell, F. (2003 ). The Competitive Advantage of Common Sense. FT Press. 14. Ohmae. (2002 ). The Mind Of The Strategist. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. 15. Papp, R. (2001 ). Strategic information technology: opportunities for competitive advantage. Idea Group Inc (IGI). 16. Philip Kotler. (1999 ). Kotler on marketing: how to create, win, and dominate markets. Simon and Schuster. 17. Richard Gibbs, Andrew Humphries. (2009 ). Strategic alliances & marketing partnerships. Kogan Page Publishers. 18. Robert E. Hoskisson, Michael A. Hitt, R. Duane Ireland. (2008 ). Competing for advantage. Cengage Learning. 19. Robert E. Stevens, David Loudon. (2005 ). Marketing planning guide. Routledge. 20. Roger A. Kerin, Steven W. Hartley, William Rudelius. (2010 ). Marketing: The Core. McGraw-Hill Companies,Inc. Research log Database Time Spent Search Terms Results (# of records) Evaluation of material (how/what will it contribute to your essay or support your argument?) www.google.com 0.45 secs, per search item. (total 1 and half hours) Marketing strategy and competitive advantage 59,100,000 results Many materials are extraneous, few peer reviewed or academic papers. www.google.com 0.25 secs per search item (total 2 hrs) Marketing strategy 55,500,000 results Many materials are extraneous, few peer reviewed or academic papers. www.google.com 0.34 secs per search item (total 2 hrs) How Marketing strategy helps develop competitive advantage of a firm 197,000,000 results Many materials are extraneous, few peer reviewed or academic papers. www.google.com 0.45 secs (4-6 hrs for downloading articles and going through them) Gaining competitive advantage through marketing strategies, pdf 11,100,000 results Several pdf articles downloaded many being peer reviewed papers and by experts like Porter, Hamel and Prahalad, and others. Most were relevant. www.escholarship.org (website by the University of California0 (No registration required) Some few seconds only to go to page but took around 3 to 4 hrs to go over materials and then download some. Marketing strategy 459 results fewer results but all peer reviewed, some very relevant to the paper and many freely downloadable www.escholarship.org (Free registration) Some few seconds only to go to page but took around 3 to 4 hrs to go over materials and then download some. Competitive advantage 760 results All peer reviewed paper, some freely downloadable. All papers downloaded were relevant and included some by leading authors in the field or research scholars/faculty of leading global universities. www.ssrn.com Varied time and upto as many as 6-hrs at a stretch to download papers. Marketing strategy/ competitive advantage Numerous results in each search Many are freely downloadable and some available only for purchase at nominal amounts. Tie up with different universities like UCLA, University of Seoul and so on. Very authentic papers and many peer reviewed articles by domain experts. Read More