Att bibehålla och utveckla konkurrensfördelar under en svart svan: En fallstudie om Kiviks Musteri

Sammanfattning: Purpose: The purpose of the study is to look at how a company with its risks spread across different industries is working to strengthen its operations in relation to the progress of a global crisis, in this case Covid-19. As the purpose of this study, we have chosen to relate to the company's perceived strengths in relation to crisis management and how this crisis management can help maintain and develop both existing and new competitive advantages. Methodology: The study was conducted with an abductive approach. With this kind of approach, the ambition is to establish certain conclusions that can serve as a starting point for further research in the area. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with people from the management team at Kiviks Musteri, which acted as the business case of the study. Theoretical perspectives: The study is based on the theories The Resource Based View and Crisis Management. The two theories are put in relation to one another, with the aim of examining how companies manage their competitive advantages during an ongoing crisis. This leads to the following question: How does a company work to maintain and develop competitive advantages during an ongoing crisis? Empirical foundation: During the conduct of the interviews, five perceived competitive advantages are revealed at Kiviks Musteri. These competitive advantages are: The Apple, Geography, Organization, Brand and Employees and Company culture. In addition, Innovation and Network Relations as well as a number of factors that deal with crisis management at Kiviks Musteri are also presented. Conclusions: The case study of Kiviks Musteri, shows that the company lacks sustainable competitive advantages, as defined by Barney. That is, a resource must be valuable, rare, nonsubstitutable and non-imitable. One thing that is clear, however, is that Kiviks Musteri has a number of perceived competitive advantages that they actively work with to maintain market shares. They further continue to do so, under the tough conditions that Covid-19 has brought.