Trip advisor is an existing travel website that provides reviews of information that is travel related, as well as an interactive travel forum. The content therein is generated by the users and is freely available to users who the site relies on for a large amount of the information found therein since the website has adopted a business model that is client oriented.
A VRIO analysis of the resources and capabilities
The VRIO framework addresses four important aspects of a firm. That is Value, Rarity, Imitability, and Organization. Focusing on the case of Trip Advisor, we look at its resources. Being an online based firm, trip advisor's resources are mainly its users. It is from these users that trip advisor gets both its clients as well as feedback that then acts as new information to be provided to new clients. The users are a critically valuable resource for trip advisor since without them it cannot be business as usual. Even though this resource is not rare, it is difficult to obtain since it takes a huge amount of effort and strategy to bring all these users to accept, embrace and regularly use the site.
Trip advisor’s users are quite costly to imitate in that it will require a better offer as well as above the line marketing strategies to get so many users to subscribe to these kind of services. Finally, on the question of organization, Trip Advisor is well organized to exploit these resources since it has placed a system where all the users subscribed to the site are the ones responsible for providing all the information the firm needs to improve its operations and maintain its competitive advantage. Through feedback, the firm is able to achieve this with absolute ease.
Summary
This VRIO analysis of trip advisor is responsible for guiding the firm in achieving a sustained competitive advantage over any competitors within the same field of operation.
Works Cited
Chapman, Robert J. Simple Tools and Techniques for Enterprise Risk Management. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Print.
Jesse Russell, Ronald Cohn. Tripadvisor. New York: Book on Demand, 2012. Print.
Kurt Gaubinger, Michael Rabl, Scott Swan and Thomas Werani. Innovation and Product Management. Berlin: Springer, 2014. Print.
Sanchez, Ron. Research in Competence-Based Management, Volume 4. Bradford: Emerald Group Publishing, 2008. Print.
