Competitiveness by design and inimitability through service: understanding the dynamics of firm-based competition in the West Midlands jewellery and lock industries

John R. Bryson and Michael Taylor

The Service Industries Journal, 2009, vol. 30, issue 4, 583-596

Abstract: Manufacturing firms located in high-cost production locations have developed a series of complex inimitability strategies in response to intensive competition from low-cost producers. This paper draws upon the resource-based view of the firm to explore inimitability, as a strategy firms deploy in response to imitation. The analysis is based upon in-depth interviews with lock, jewellery and whistle manufacturers located in the West Midlands, UK. Many of these firms have been transformed into niche manufacturers whose competitiveness is based around a process of customisation through a co-production relationship with customers, the delivery of service experiences and a continual process of design-intensive innovation.

Date: 2009
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:servic:v:30:y:2009:i:4:p:583-596

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DOI: 10.1080/02642060903096513

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The Service Industries Journal is currently edited by Eileen Bridges, Professor Domingo Ribeiro, Ronald Goldsmith, Barry Howcroft and Youjae Yi

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