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Business Strategy First and Second Mover Advantage

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First and Second Mover Advantage
First Mover Advantage
Definition
First movers are the companies that take an initial competitive action, either strategic or tactical. First movers are companies that have the resources, capabilities, and core competencies that enable them to gain a competitive advantage through innovative and entrepreneurial competitive actions. By being first, the first mover hopes to gain a sustainable competitive advantage, earn above-average returns until competitors respond effectively and gain customer loyalty, thus creating a barrier to entry by competitors.
Any advantage gained generally will vary based on the type of competitive action and type of industry as also to the extent to which the action is difficult to imitate because of the difficulty of imitation, first mover actions based on core competencies should be sustainable for longer periods than actions based on other factors.
There also are dangers or disadvantages of being a first mover. There are three major ones:
• There are risks related to being first because of the inability to predict success of the action.
• Second movers through reverse engineering or imitation can avoid high development costs.
• Extent and range of marketplace competition yields greater potential risk. In some instances, companies that delay their response to a competitive action fail to compete effectively and their performance suffers. However, that may not always be true since it may be more appropriate to be a second or late mover.
First mover advantage example product
Google Glass (By Google Company) – First Generation of AR Glasses (Augmented Reality). Google Glass (styled as Google GLΛSS) is a wearable computer that is being developed by Google. It is worn on a person's head, with a screen sitting in front of the eyes that displays information like a smartphone. It is instructed

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