Competitor Analysis Process: A Proposal for the Critical Power Business
Honkanen, Henri (2019)
2019
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201905067887
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201905067887
Tiivistelmä
This thesis focuses on developing the Competitor analysis process for a Product Marketing organization, which is a part of a global company competing in electrical industry. Increasing competition necessitates the sharpened Competitor analysis practices for which the case organization current tools were not sufficient. Due the lack of integrated systematic process, the case organization was not able to fulfill the operative and strategic needs of Competitor analysis. Therefore, the case organization needed to develop the Competitor analysis process to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their analysis.
This study reviews the crucial elements of Competitor analysis as well as develops the logic for Competitor analysis process for the case company. In this study, the qualitative research methodology and Design research approach were utilized due to specific nature of the research problem and business context. The research problem involves people and develops from practice to theory by exploring of the phenomena. The research design of this thesis includes the description of five predefined stages, three data collection rounds and the specified outcome from each the stages. The data was collected by conducting interviews and workshops as well as exploring the company documentation. In this study, the current state analysis was utilized first to get comprehensive understanding of the current practices in the case organization. This was followed by the theoretical construct creation according to literature and best practice which focused on tackling the identified weaknesses so that to achieve the objective of this study.
This Master’s thesis revealed the key challenges of the Competitor analysis in the case organization. The challenges were strongly related to the lack of process design and management as well as the uncertainty of Competitor analysis tools, methods and techniques. The challenges were overcome by retrieving the best practice from literature and formulating it into the theoretical construct of Competitor analysis process, which was then utilized for the proposal development. As the result of this thesis, the case organization has broader understanding of Competitor analysis and a robust Competitor analysis process design with the integrated tools.
By utilizing the proposed Competitor analysis process, the case organization’s related practices are integrated into the overall standardized system, which ensures that all the vital elements are in place to analyse competitors and their offering in current business context. The utilization will expand the Competitor analysis offering, improve the collaboration and transparency of the practices as well as enable solid ground for a continuous improvement of the Competitor analysis. The knowledge gained from this study can be used as a source for future development also for other business units in the case company.
This study reviews the crucial elements of Competitor analysis as well as develops the logic for Competitor analysis process for the case company. In this study, the qualitative research methodology and Design research approach were utilized due to specific nature of the research problem and business context. The research problem involves people and develops from practice to theory by exploring of the phenomena. The research design of this thesis includes the description of five predefined stages, three data collection rounds and the specified outcome from each the stages. The data was collected by conducting interviews and workshops as well as exploring the company documentation. In this study, the current state analysis was utilized first to get comprehensive understanding of the current practices in the case organization. This was followed by the theoretical construct creation according to literature and best practice which focused on tackling the identified weaknesses so that to achieve the objective of this study.
This Master’s thesis revealed the key challenges of the Competitor analysis in the case organization. The challenges were strongly related to the lack of process design and management as well as the uncertainty of Competitor analysis tools, methods and techniques. The challenges were overcome by retrieving the best practice from literature and formulating it into the theoretical construct of Competitor analysis process, which was then utilized for the proposal development. As the result of this thesis, the case organization has broader understanding of Competitor analysis and a robust Competitor analysis process design with the integrated tools.
By utilizing the proposed Competitor analysis process, the case organization’s related practices are integrated into the overall standardized system, which ensures that all the vital elements are in place to analyse competitors and their offering in current business context. The utilization will expand the Competitor analysis offering, improve the collaboration and transparency of the practices as well as enable solid ground for a continuous improvement of the Competitor analysis. The knowledge gained from this study can be used as a source for future development also for other business units in the case company.