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Jeanne Ross. Pervaje, Amith (Amith Kumar) System Design and Management Program. System Design and Management Program. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division 2011-12-09T21:25:34Z 2011-12-09T21:25:34Z 2011 2011 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/67567 761729574 Thesis (S.M. in Engineering and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, 2011. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-62). Executive summary: Social Media is increasingly becoming prevalent and firms are increasingly adopting social media. Managers are concerned about the value social media provides and how it can be used for competitive advantage. The resource-based-view of a firm suggests that resources that are rare, valuable, imperfectly imitable and non-substitutable can create sustained competitive advantage. This thesis uses the resource-based view of the firm applied to five case studies of Wiki implementation and analyzes how social media could create sustained competitive advantage. The analysis in this thesis finds that social media can be used to enhance existing resources and capabilities in a firm. These organizational capabilities are hard to imitate because of path dependency, social complexity and causal ambiguity and thus provide the firm sustained competitive advantage. The effective implementation of social media by a firm requires that it identify its core capabilities and resources to enhance, identify the gap that exists between the needed capabilities and the capabilities the firm possesses and then systematically embed social media in the daily routines and processes of the organization. This can be done by adopting appropriate social media guidelines, training and policy enforcement. Adopting social media by itself will not confer a firm sustained competitive advantage but capabilities thus enhanced could confer a firm sustained competitive advantage. by Amith Pervaje. S.M. in Engineering and Management 70 p. eng Massachusetts Institute of Technology M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 Engineering Systems Division. System Design and Management Program. Resource-based view of social media as a source of sustained competitive advantage Thesis application/pdf Publication unknown unknown <Publication xmlns="https://www.openaire.eu/cerif-profile/1.1/" id="f823e450-f5a7-46e4-a944-f6064ebd2d1b"> <Type xmlns="https://www.openaire.eu/cerif-profile/vocab/COAR_Publication_Types">http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_1843</Type> <Language>eng</Language> <Title>Resource-based view of social media as a source of sustained competitive advantage</Title> <PublishedIn> <Publication> </Publication> </PublishedIn> <PublicationDate>2011</PublicationDate> <Authors> <Author> <DisplayName>Pervaje, Amith (Amith Kumar)</DisplayName> <Affiliation> <OrgUnit> </OrgUnit> </Affiliation> </Author> </Authors> <Editors> </Editors> <Publishers> <Publisher> <DisplayName>Massachusetts Institute of Technology</DisplayName> <OrgUnit /> </Publisher> </Publishers> <License>http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582</License> <Keyword>Engineering Systems Division.</Keyword> <Keyword>System Design and Management Program.</Keyword> <Abstract>Executive summary: Social Media is increasingly becoming prevalent and firms are increasingly adopting social media. Managers are concerned about the value social media provides and how it can be used for competitive advantage. The resource-based-view of a firm suggests that resources that are rare, valuable, imperfectly imitable and non-substitutable can create sustained competitive advantage. This thesis uses the resource-based view of the firm applied to five case studies of Wiki implementation and analyzes how social media could create sustained competitive advantage. The analysis in this thesis finds that social media can be used to enhance existing resources and capabilities in a firm. These organizational capabilities are hard to imitate because of path dependency, social complexity and causal ambiguity and thus provide the firm sustained competitive advantage. The effective implementation of social media by a firm requires that it identify its core capabilities and resources to enhance, identify the gap that exists between the needed capabilities and the capabilities the firm possesses and then systematically embed social media in the daily routines and processes of the organization. This can be done by adopting appropriate social media guidelines, training and policy enforcement. Adopting social media by itself will not confer a firm sustained competitive advantage but capabilities thus enhanced could confer a firm sustained competitive advantage.</Abstract> <Access xmlns="http://purl.org/coar/access_right" > </Access> </Publication>