Strategic Positioning and Resource-Based Thinking: Cutting Through the Haze of Punditry to Understand Factors Behind Sustainable, Successful Internet Businesses

This article synthesizes and leverages two strategic frameworks when analyzing the true nature of strategy and the Internet: (1) the concept of strategic positioning, and (2) the resource-based view of the firm. When considered together, these approaches create a powerful tool for understanding the factors determining the winners and losers among Internet businesses. Several examples of the applied framework are demonstrated. These frameworks also help challenge broken thought around many of the postbubble assertions regarding strategy and the Internet. This analysis is based on a series of case studies, with information drawn both from secondary sources as well as over 60 field visits with senior managers at technology firms in Seattle, Silicon Valley, and Tokyo conducted from 2005-2006. understAndIng competItIve AdvAntAge strategic positioning To understand strategic positioning it is important to first recognize what it is not. Many firms claim to have crafted a sustainable strategy, only to realize that their competitive position is vulnerable and will be eroded over time. Vulnerable business models are often the result of relying on operational effectiveness. Operational effectiveness involves “performing similar activities better than rivals