Research On Competitive Advantage Of Streaming Media Platform Based On The Perspective Of VRIO

Streaming media that integrates wireless communication technologies and multimedia networks provides technical support for users to watch movies and television in real time.It offers convenience to users and meets their needs for entertainment of higher quality.Driven by technical improvements and users,the rapidly developing streaming media industry witnesses growing users and revenues and has gradually gained an advantageous edge over traditional cable networks.However,as the changing internal and external environment of the industry leads to increasingly fierce competition among streaming media platforms,how to develop and maintain an advantageous position in the industry has become a major concern for streaming media platforms at the current stage.Netflix is a pioneer in the global streaming media industry with the most subscribers and operating incomes,and its business model impacts the development of the streaming media industry.Adopting a case study approach,this research selects Netflix as the object and intends to draw conclusions that can be applied to other streaming media platforms through analysis of Netflix’s resources and its competitive advantages.This research takes the resource base theory,Schumpeter ’s theory of innovation,and the theory of the Niche as the theoretical basis and utilizes the VRIO analysis framework of the resource base theory to study the competitive advantage of streaming media platforms based on previous research of this area in combination with the actual situation of the research object from the endogenous perspective of competitive advantage.Chapters 3 through 6 are the main components of this research.Chapter 3 starts with a review of Netflix ’s development history and the determination of its main business links based on the value created for its customers,followed by a comparative analysis of the resources involved in the main business links with other streaming media platforms to conclude that original contents,global production,user base,user revenue,technical services,corporate culture,and management philosophy are Netflix’s core resources.Within the scope of core resources,Chapter 4 utilizes the VRIO analysis framework to determine whether there is heterogeneity in core resources from the perspectives of Value(V),Rareness(R),Inimitability(I),and Organization(O).The findings exhibit the heterogeneity in contents,users,technology,global market,organization,and Netflix’s other resources that lead to its basic competitive position.In addition,there is a flywheel effect of“ accumulative contents – expansion of user base – performance improvement –accumulative content”.Among them,Netflix has particularly obvious competitive advantages in high-quality original content,recommendation algorithm,globalization strategy,corporate culture,and organizational management style.As a result,a modified competitive advantage model for streaming media platforms is further constructed based on the basic flywheel effect.In Chapter 5,the competitive advantage model for streaming media platforms is validated by the theory of the Niche.This chapter focuses on the development strategy of Netflix’s overall niche and analyzes the width and degree of overlapping of content niche and user niche.By verifying Netflix’s business initiatives,operational indicators,and stock market value during its streaming media period,this research demonstrates the existence of the flywheel effect as the major cycle and the auxiliary resources as the outer cycle,and the influence of the above-mentioned resources on improving the content niche and user niche.Finally,using Netflix’s competitive advantage model in the multiple-media context,Chapter 6 proposes that streaming media platforms should develop themselves based on diversified content as core competence while extending to the upstream of the industry chain and achieving a deep integration between technology and culture to change the film and television industry system and create the value of audio-visual streaming media culture through content distribution.For Chinese streaming media platforms,recommendations are also proposed for their quality content,platform ecology,specific contexts,and culture from a cultural perspective.