realrealones

1st Slide:

As can be seen from the slide, the ability of Thankyou to appropriate value rests on three main factors, the dominant selectors, their business model and the track your impact system they have employed.

Thankyou Company espouses Wjinberg and Mol's notion of innovation whereby the dominant selectors: product suppliers such as supermarkets like Coles or Woolies, they are the ones to deem Thankyou to be appropriating value and thus will stock its products on their shelves. But how is value captured?

Resting largely on the latter two elements on the slide, they represent an aspect of dynamic configurations that many startups and turnarounds possess - elements of strategic theory encompassing entrepreneurship that Mintzberg theorizes. First, Thankyou's business model predicates on the operation of delegating profits made from sales to serve as donations to worldwide charity organizations. Secondly, the Track your Impact element not only enhances the relationship between the consumer and the product, but also detaches the company itself, from the rest of the competition.

As Barney theorizes, it is the complex set of value, beliefs, assumptions and symbols that define the way in which a firm conducts its business and more specifically, the charitable "culture" of Thankyou acts in a way that provides a competitive advantage while simultaneously capturing value.


2nd Slide:

The largest threat to Thankyou company was the difficulty entering the established market. Being able to partner with big suppliers and thus being recognized as having captured value by the dominant selectors, ensures Thankyou's name will at least be known and they may have a decent foothold in the competitive market.

Differentiation between competitors play a key role in swaying the decision-making powers of selection systems. The institutional innovation of the Track your Impact should allow Thankyou to utilize that very difference to place them at a competitive edge. Theorized by Wjinberg and Gemser, if the value created by the organization can be changed to reflect what could be done for, let's say, the environments, the differing notions of value held by dominant selectors may change alongside that.


3rd Slide:

So how does relevant selectors influence success?
Following the flowchart across:
- Brand Recognition: if supermarkets are stocking more Thankyou Branded products, then it increases the likelihood of consumers purchasing that particular brand.
- Profits: profits thus increase
- Donations to Charity: which means more charitable donations can be made
- Organizational Growth: along with subsequent organizational growth
- Influence: and with internal growth comes external growth in the form of reputation whereby they could influence similar types of business operations or activities in their competitors
At last, there is the possibility of Thankyou becoming a company that acts on the forefront of this new type of social enterprise industry.
This snowball effect with elements of Kingston's theory of competitive imitation, means companies in an industry can continue to grow and develop not only for their economical benefit but for the good of sustainability and resolving the overarching social and environmental issues.


4th Slide:


One method of overcoming one aforementioned obstacle would be making available, evidence of charitable action that stems from donations of profits.

The upside of transparency, particularly when it comes to donating money from profits, is that the element of trust is not betrayed. If donations are made public, then utilizing the track your impact system, consumers could track not only their own impact but the impact of the company itself. This may have the effect of instilling a sense of trust and belief that Thankyou is doing good by consumers and perhaps offset the social stigma that comes with purchasing plastic water bottles in general.