Hassan Sherwani ROLE OF SALES AND MARKETING IN ... - Oulu

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based energy distribution remained monopoly because it is believed that these
companies provide bread and butter for the community within that municipality. Even
governments make their policies very carefully by keeping this factor in consideration.
Another reason of monopolist behavior being still dominated is that most of services in
energy business are technology based and therefore, those services are outsourced from
other ICT companies. It is still very hard for a startup to challenge developed electricity
company due to limited R&D facilities, marketing budget and sales competence.
Value creation is second most important factor for energy business. It is referred as an
important aspect of determining relationship between the company and customer so that
an organization may provide superior competitive advantage (Grönroos, 1994). For
energy company, it is important for whom they are creating value whether it is
government, end consumer or the community which will be benefited through job
market and efficient service delivery. Traditionally, value creation is only limited to
customer and its service provider. Moreover, Naumann, (1995) argues that it is the
responsibility of the supplier to provide best of service to its customer hence; value
creation is a one way process which an organization provides to the customer, through
its product and service offerings, brands and relationships.
For traditional model, resource based view is a key concept that emphasizes on internal
capabilities of organization in formulating strategy to achieve a sustainable competitive
advantage and explain the profit and value of the organization in its markets and
industries (Grant, 1991). According to Wernerfelt (1984), this concept explains the
differences in performance within an industry through possession of valuable resources
that others cannot or do not have. Resource based view can be understood as finding
future competitiveness by successful firms on the development of distinctive and unique
capabilities, which may often be implicit or intangible in nature. It is evident through
research that competitive advantage and performance results are a consequence of firmspecific
resources and capabilities that are hard to copy by other competitors. For energy
company, resource based view has its own significance because, resources are
considered key for electricity business. Take China, for example, where a large amount
of coal reservoirs are found and they are utilized to produce energy. As discussed earlier,