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zara essay
After Zara's first Australian store in Sydney reportedly sold out 80% of its stock (worth $1.2 million) in its opening day in 2011, sales figures in 2014 have revealed slowing sales momentum and increasing costs. Using the Resource-Based View of the firm (RBV) (Barney, 1986, 1991), critically evaluate the competitiveness of Zara within the Australian retail industry.

The resource based view revolves around the notion of a firms tangible and intangible resources and capabilities allowing the firm to sustain a competitive advantage amongst its competitors. Zara being one of the biggest multinational fashion retailers of our time possesses many resources that enable Zara to maintain a competitive edge. Zara’s most noteworthy tangible resources center around financial resources and physical stores. In terms of their intangible resources Zara utilizes it’s designing and manufacturing processes, their brand image and organisational information system. These resources hold attributes of being valuable, rare, hard to imitate, and non-substitutable. Furthermore the capabilities they retain allowing for incredibly short lead times, manufacturing small batches and the introduction of the fast fashion concept to the Australian retail industry. Examining Zara through the scope of the resource-based view suggests that the company sustains a large competitive advantage in contrast to other players within the Australian industry.

Para 1 what is rbv?

The resource-based view has emerged over time as one of the significant theories of strategic management (Barney 1986). The resource-based view is centered on the notion of sustaining a competitive advantage primarily through the application of a bundle of resources at the firms’ disposal (Wernerfelt 1984). The concept of resources is all encompassing of organisations assets, capabilities, firm attributes, information and knowledge (barney 1991). Usually divided into two categories, tangible resources are objects within the

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