External Environment
Ecological Environment
The natural environment in which NASA operates can be described as neutral in terms of its impact on the company’s operations. While it does not contribute to the company’s success, there are no factors that threaten its well-being.
Macro-environment
On the external level, NASA has a plethora of advantages, the lack of competitors being the key one. Furthermore, the opportunities for collaboration with other firms, which NASA can explore, allow improving the quality of the product significantly.
Technological Environment
With impressive financial assets and the recent technological breakthrough, NASA can deploy the latest devices to improve its services and products. Thus, the chances of building premises for an increase in customer loyalty are high for NASA (Labbe et al., 2015).
Therefore, in the context of the global market, NASA has a range of strengths that can be used to build an even greater competitive advantage than the current one. As a result, NASA may become one of the most powerful companies in the global market. Furthermore, the firm will promote technological progress and, possibly, even provide more chances for space tourism and non-commercial, exploratory projects. Consequently, the foundation for a rapid growth can be built successfully.
Internal Environment
Resources
The project can be credited for a rather efficient and sustainable use of the available resources. The time management used by the organizations to market the final product to the end customer should be listed among the most successful allocation of resources by NASA and Greenleaf (Terjesen, 2014).
Capabilities
Both organizations have utilized their capabilities to the fullest. NASA has designed the unique approach toward leveraging innovative technologies. Greenleaf, in its turn, has come up with a unique formula that is bound to reinvent the industry as people know it.
Competencies
The companies’ competencies have been used successfully to develop, design, and promote the product.
Activities
The marketing activities used by the companies to attract attention to their product have also been quite impressive. However, a more active use of social networks might be a good idea.
VRIO
- Value. The value of the product offered by NASA can be deemed as rather high since it allows reducing negative effects that people experience in space.
- Rarity. The rarity of the beverage is also very high since Greenleaf is the only organization that has designed the product in collaboration with NASA.
- Imitability. Since the formula is kept in secret, and that Greenleaf has been cooperating with NASA to produce it, the imitability levels are very low.
- Organization. The production process has also been organized in a rather elaborate manner (Terjesen, 2014).
Based on the assessment made above, it can be assumed that NASA and Greenleaf are likely to have developed a long-term competitive advantage that will allow them to remain at the helm of the industry for quite a while. It could be argued, though, that the introduction of the identified product to the target market will result in a rather long commercialization process. Seeing that the number of operations in space is rather scarce at present, the demand for the beverage is not going to be very high. However, with the future expansion planned by NASA, an increase in the product popularity can be expected. Despite having an outstanding competitive status at present, NASA may gain even more influence once it breaks new grounds in space exploration.
Reference List
Labbe, I., Oesch, P. A., Illingworth, G. D., Dokkum, P. G. V., Bouwens, R. G., Franx, M., … Stefanon, M. (2015). Ultradeep IRAC imaging over the HUDF and goods-south: Survey design and imaging data release. Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 221(2), 1-13.
Terjesen, S. (2014). The right stuff: A NASA technology-based new venture and the search for markets on Earth. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 40(3), 713-726.