To prepare for this discussion, revisit the Cola Wars case (see the Yoffie reading last week), and review this week's reading by Barney, "Looking Inside for Competitive Advantage."
- Using Barney's characteristics (VRIO), revisit the Coca-Cola case and identify which resources are most important for competitive advantage.
- Based on the analysis of Coca-Cola's resources, make recommendations to Coca-Cola's management as to which of the resources you have identified should be invested in (or divested) and/or which resources should be acquired.
- In your follow-on response, focus on the viability of the suggestions made by other students: To which degree do these suggestions make sense with regard to the possibility of gaining sustainable competitive advantage (related to value, rareness, inimitability, and non-substitutability of the factors)?