Our web app Business Plan Quick Builder is influenced by the work of Jay Barney on the Resource Based View of business. This suggests that to have competitive advantage that can be maintained a business needs some unique resources that make it stand out from the competition. The resource could make the business more efficient or allow it to offer a product or service that is especially valued by customers. Barney (1991) suggests that for a resource to provide such advantage it should meet four criteria:
Valuable: provide something valued by customers
Rare: be something the competitors cannot easily obtain
Imperfectly imitable: be hard for competitors to copy
Non substitutable – competitors cannot replace the resource with something that gives a similar advantage
The business overview section is particularly influenced by Barney’s work as it captures the internal aspects of the business – structure, key people, resource – that help achieve advantage.
Barney, Jay (March 1991). “Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage”. Journal of Management. 17 (1): 99–120.
