A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis looks at internal and external factors that can affect your business. Internal factors are your strengths and weaknesses. External factors are the threats and opportunities. If an issue or situation would exist even if your business didn't (such as changes in technology or a major flood), it is an external issue.
Strategic planning, brainstorming and decision making
A SWOT analysis is a useful tool for brainstorming and strategic planning. You'll get more value from a SWOT analysis if you conduct it with a specific objective or question in mind. For example, you can use a SWOT analysis to help you decide if and how you should:
- take advantage of a new business opportunity
- respond to new trends
- implement new technology
- deal with changes to your competitors' operations.
Building on strengths
A SWOT analysis will help you identify areas of your business that are performing well. These areas are your critical success factors and they give your business its competitive advantage.
Identifying these strengths can help you make sure you maintain them so you don't lose your competitive advantage. Growing your business involves finding ways of using and building on these strengths.
Minimising weaknesses
Weaknesses are the characteristics that put your business at a disadvantage to others. Conducting a SWOT analysis can help you identify these characteristics and minimise or improve them before they become a problem. When conducting a SWOT analysis, it is important to be realistic about the weaknesses in your business so you can deal with them adequately.
Seizing opportunities
A SWOT analysis can help you identify opportunities that your business could take advantage of to make greater profits. Opportunities are created by external factors, such as new consumer trends and changes in the market.
Conducting a SWOT analysis will help you understand the internal factors (your business's strengths and weaknesses) that will influence your ability to take advantage of a new opportunity. If your business doesn't have the capability to seize an opportunity but decides to anyway, it could be damaging. Similarly, if you do have the capability to seize an opportunity and don't, it could also be damaging.
Counteracting threats
Threats are external factors that could cause problems for your business, such as changes to the market, a competitor's new advertising campaign, or new government policy. A SWOT analysis can help you identify threats and ways to counteract them, depending on your strengths and weaknesses.
Addressing individual issues
You can conduct a SWOT analysis to address individual issues, such as:
- staffing issues
- business culture and image
- new product development
- organisational structure
- advertising
- financial resources
- operational efficiency.
When you're conducting an individual SWOT analysis, keep in mind that a strength for one issue might be a weakness for another. You might also identify a weakness, such as a gap in the market that you're not covering, that could be an opportunity for your business.
Also consider...
- Find out more ways to grow your business.
- Read about how to benchmark your business so you can identify where your business currently stands.
Abstract
Leveraging the recent research interest in emerging economies, this Perspective paper argues that an institution-based view of international business (IB) strategy has emerged. It is positioned as one leg that helps sustain the "strategy tripod" (the other two legs consisting of the industry- and resource-based views). We then review four diverse areas of substantive research: (1) antidumping as entry barriers; (2) competing in and out of India; (3) growing the firm in China; and (4) governing the corporation in emerging economies. Overall, we argue that an institution-based view of IB strategy, in combination with industry- and resource-based views, will not only help sustain a strategy tripod, but also shed significant light on the most fundamental questions confronting IB, such as "What drives firm strategy and performance in IB?"
Journal Information
Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) is a top-ranked peer-reviewed journal in the field of international business; its goal is to publish insightful, innovative and impactful research on international business. JIBS is multidisciplinary in scope, and interdisciplinary in content and methodology. JIBS is an official publication of the Academy of International Business. JIBS is published 9 times a year.
Publisher Information
Palgrave Macmillan is a global academic publisher, serving learning and scholarship in higher education and the professional world. We publish textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. Our programme focuses on the Humanities, the Social Sciences and Business. As part of the Macmillan Group, we represent an unbroken tradition of 150 years of independent academic publishing, continually reinventing itself for the future. Our goal is to be publisher of choice for all our stakeholders – for authors, customers, business partners, the academic communities we serve and the staff who work for us. We aim to do this by reaching the maximum readership with works of the highest quality.
Rights & Usage
This item is part of a JSTOR Collection.
For terms and use,
please refer to our Terms and Conditions
Journal of International Business Studies © 2008 Springer
Request Permissions