Competitive differentiation

The various formulatory raw materials necessary to produce these programs are available as either commodity, semispecialty, or specialty chemicals worldwide. Although today all water treatment companies, no matter their size or location, have virtually the same opportunities for materials sourcing, some depth of experience is required to provide blended (and branded) products that have genuinely beneficial properties and the potential for competitive differentiation. 

The portfolio of services performed by chemical distributors is an important opportunity for competitive differentiation. Specifically, these services include ... 

In this area in particular, distributors have opportunities for competitive differentiation by working in close cooperation with producers. We see this as the next industry S-curve to establish win-win situations and create joint value through the efficient assignment of resources along the value chain. 

Three interrelated trends of globalization among chemical producers and customers, increasing QHSE (quality, health, safety, and environment) standards, and outsourcing by the producers and customers are currently shaping the chemical distribution industry, offering distributors considerable opportunities for competitive differentiation. 

H. L. Smith (1986d), Periodic competitive differential equations and the discrete dynamics of competitive maps, Journal of Differential Equations 64 165-94. 

There is a new consumer environment that features increased food safety concerns, a focus on health and diet, and increasingly globalised consumer tastes. In more developed markets, experts predict that social and environmental concerns, especially ethical ones, will continue to emerge as not only competitive differentiators, but as basic rules of the game and prerequisites for participation. 

Analytic modeling research in this area is limited. Examples include two competitive models involving products that require after-sales maintenance repair. Cohen and Whang, 1997, used product, price, and quality of aftersales service as strategic decisions and concluded that after-sales service can be used as competitive differentiator. Muithy and Kumar, 2000, developed a game-theoretic model representing the interaction between a manufacturer and a retailer, and studied the relationship between quality of service, quality of performance, and retail price. 

Supply chain management has become sufficiently important to business performance to warrant a mantra, of sorts, namely that "companies do not compete with each other, but their supply chains do." While some might debate whether entire supply chains could literally compete with each other, there is no doubt that efficient management of the supply chain has become a competitive differentiator for many companies. In the next section, we discuss the top 25 supply chains and what supply chain characteristics make them industry leaders. 

The three main sources of competitive advantage in the manufacture of high value protein products are first to market, high product quaUty, and low cost (3). The first company to market a new protein biopharmaceutical, and the first to gain patent protection, enjoys a substantial advantage. The second company to enter the market may find itself enjoying only one-tenth of the sales. In the absence of patent protection, product differentiation becomes very important. Differentiation reflects a product that is purer, more active, or has a greater lot-to-lot consistency. 

The price differential at which coal becomes competitive with gas depends on plant size and the cost of capital, but based on estimates by the International Energy Agency (21) the required price ratio for gas to coal in North America falls into the range of 3.1 to 3.7 on an equivalent energy basis ( /MJ). Current prices give a gas/coal cost ratio nearer 1.5 to 2.0. As a result, all projected new methanol capacity is based on natural gas or heavy oil except for the proposed coal-based plant in China. 

Most NOS inhibitors are stmcturaHy related to L-arginine and do not differentiate between the isoforms (Table 15). t - / 7-Methy1 arginine (l-NMA) (264) is a competitive inhibitor and also irreversibly inhibits NOS. T.-/ 7-Nitroarginine (l-NNA) (265), L-AP -nitroarginine methyl ester (t.-NAMF) (266),... 

Other specific discovery assays have been used such as differential inhibition of a vancomycin resistant S. aureus strain and its susceptible parent, and an assay based on antagonism of the antibacterial activity by N,A/-diacetyl-L-Lys-D-Ala-D-Ala [24570-39-6] a tripeptide analogue of the dalbaheptides receptor. AppHcation of this latter test to 1936 cultures (90) led to the isolation of 42 dalbaheptides, six of which, including kibdelin (Table 3), parvodicin (Table 3), and actinoidin A2 (68) were novel. A colorimetric assay based on competition between horseradish peroxidase bound teicoplanin and the... 

Aroma.tic-AUpha.tic Polyester Resins. Unlike most other classes of engineering plastics, which are made by only a few manufacturers, aromatic-aHphatic polyester resins are produced and compounded by several dozen firms (66). The aHphatic polyester resin marketplace is characterized by wide product differentiation and competition. Some firms make only a few hundred tons per year and presumably retain profitabiHty because of the avadabiHty of low cost monomer and the simplicity of the processes employed. Low investment and low manufacturing costs are possible even for smaH-volume operations. 

The morphological and physiological dissimilarities between mycorrhizal symbi-o.ses probably determine their success and their distinct patterns in different ecosystems (92). Nitrogen (N) available to both AM and ectomycorrhizal plants should not be regarded as a single pool open to free competition. Specialization of its acquisition and utilization in a given habitat is an important feature of plant and microbial community structure, while the fact that the ability to exploit its sources (and tho.se of other limited nutrients) is not the same in all species may result in niche differentiation (93). If habitat specialization is a reflection of differences between mycorrhizal types, ectomycorrhizal and AM species could cooccur because they exploit different niches in the. same ecosystem. 

Table 10.4 shows the main trends affecting the overall polymer business. However, differentiation according to polymer type is necessary (Table 10.5). The plastics industry still has a highly fragmented structure, and consolidation will continue in order to meet the demands of global competition, until there are no further incremental efficiencies to be gained. At the present time, the plastics industry is plagued by low profit margins and surplus capacity.

Because commodity and fine chemicals tend to be purchased on the basis of their chemical composition alone, they are undifferentiated. For example, there is nothing to choose between 99.9% benzene made by one manufacturer and that made by another manufacturer, other than price and delivery issues. On the other hand, specialty chemicals tend to be purchased on the basis of their effect or function and are therefore differentiated. For example, competitive pharmaceutical products are differentiated according to the efficacy of the product, rather than chemical composition. An adhesive is purchased on the basis of its ability to stick things together, rather than its chemical composition and so on. 

---