kaplan Gb570 unit 3 discussions

Competitive Advantage and the Value Chain

Write a 350-500 word response (formatted to APA style and including references and citations).

Address the following questions:

• Is the concept of a value chain intrinsic to all businesses and if not, why not?
• How does a Value Chain assist in creating competitive advantage?
• Can competitive advantage be achieved without a value chain?

In your reply also discuss the meaning of the comments made by Lu and Hung (2010) in their article in the Unit 3 readings i.e.” the competiveness of the individual firm depends upon the competitiveness of the value chain to which it belongs” (p. 1155).

• Is this statement valid, and is cost reduction the only purpose of a value chain?

Apply and cite at least three relevant and respected resources [one of the applied and cited references should be the Lu and Hung (2010) article] within the response and list the references at the end of the response. Use APA formatting.

Is Outsourcing a Competitive Advantage?

The topic of outsourcing often elicits heated and often polarizing debate on its use as a basic business strategy.

Required Resource (Kaplan Library)

Yaghoubi, N. M., Moradi, M., & Banihashemi, S. A. (2011). Analyzing the effect of value chain outsourcing on productivity based on the customer and learning perspective of the BSC Model.Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 2(10), 45-56.

Discuss circumstances when outsourcing should be considered, and whether outsourcing will add to the competitive advantage of a firm. Make sure to include the financial AND human considerations that should be included in the decision process.

Apply and cite the above-required resource plus at least two additional relevant and respected resources within the response and list the references at the end of the response. Use APA formatting.