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rsa....Progress can be made against both types of advantage simultaneously' (p.271). However, he observations there are trade- offs between the two and that f should 'maintain a clear commitment to superiority in one of them' (Porter,1998). Although Porter's work has been criticized it is still a vary widely used model of competitive behavior.

价值链和竞争优势-The value chain and competitive advantage

As companies are encounter with slower increase and stronger rivalry, competitive advantage becomes important to the maintenance of superior performance. Competitive advantage develop essentially out of the value a company is able to make for its buyers. In competitive conditions, value is the quantity which buyers are ready to pay from what a company offer to them. Porter uses the theory of a value chain to divided buyers, suppliers and a company into the separate but related activities from which value stem. Such a process is required to understand the behavior of costs and the basis of differentiation (Porter, 1985).

A company's value chain fall into nine generic activities which are connected to each other and to the activities of its suppliers, channels and buyers. They can be divided into two broad types: primary activities, which involve in the physical creation of the product, its marketing and delivery to the buyers, and its support and servicing after sales; and support activities, which provide the inputs, technology, human resources, and infrastructure that allow the primary activities to take place. It is required to separate activities with isolated technologies and economics to analyze a company's competitive advantage. Broad function should be divided into activities, such as manufacturing or marketing. A company does must be captured in a primary or support activity, a process which often needs some degree of judgment. Comparing the value chains of competitors then highlights differences which form the basis of competitive advantage (Porter, 1985).

'However, while discrete value activities are the building blocks of competitive advantage, they are not independent. They are related by linkages within the chain which reflect relationships between the way one value activity is performed and the cost or performance of another. Linkages within the value chain are crucial for competitive advantage, but are often subtle and go unrecognized. Exploiting linkages usually requires information flows that allow optimization or coordination to take place. Linkages not only exist within a firm's value chain, but between a firm's chain and the value chains of suppliers and channels (vertical linkages), thus providing additional opportunities to enhance competitive advantage. By highlighting the role of these vertical linkages, the value chain approach also allows a firm to identify more clearly the potential benefits of integration' (Porter, 1985).

Buyers also have value chains, and a company's differentiation stops from how its value chain relates to its buyer's chain. Spots of contact between buyers and the company are possible sources of competitive advantage, where value for the buyer (in the form of lower costs or improved performance) is created through a firm's impact on the buyer's value chain (Porter, 1985).

'The competitive scope of a firm is also important in creating competitive advantage.

Broad scope, for example,