IT Portfolio Theory and RBV

This article discusses the competitive advantages of Nettavisen, a Norway based online news start-up, over legacy news publishers and new media players like Facebook and Google in the Norwegian market. It also explores the combination of Resource Based View (RBV) and IT Portfolio Theory for assessing and explaining Nettavisen's competitive advantages in a disruptive turbulent market.

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IT Portfolio Theory and RBV
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IT PORTFOLIO AND RBV
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Task 1.....................................................................................................................................2
Task 2.....................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

IT PORTFOLIO AND RBV
Introduction
A Norway based online start up of news, Nettavisen had experienced an increase after
the significant financial crisis in the year of 2009. They were able to increment the market
shares and profits by utilization of few highly disruptive organizational models and also
enabling relatively lesser employee to outcompete the power house legacy publishing
organizations as well as new media-players like Google and Facebook.
Discussion
Task 1
Main Competitive Advantages Nettavisen holds over Legacy News Publishers and New
Media Players like Facebook and Google in the Norwegian Market
Nettavisen was competing against the larger obligatory publishing firms within a
rapidly developing market for the publication of online news. They are able to increment the
market share and profitability by using highly disruptive business models, which enable them
to outcompete the power house legacy publishing companies (Weill and Aral 2006). During
the earlier days of this online survey, the older news organizations felt that the brands were
extremely highly established and hence they can try-out with the newer digital platforms at
own speed. Nettavisen was able to put them wrong by establishing the most notable online
news website in only few years. This type of early success eventually differentiated them
from competition.
In 1996, the organization was completely an online start-up and by 2008, the business
models were changed for this company (Barney & Hesterly 2012). In the year of 2014, it was
announced that Nettavisen has been moving towards DDBM, in which the user buying
patterns are extremely vital. It was acquired by several significant organizations of Sweden

IT PORTFOLIO AND RBV
and Germany until in 2008, it was separated from TV2. After being separated from TV2,
Nettavisen again became purely an online newspaper service.
The major competitive advantages that Nettavisen holds over the legacy news
publishers and new media players like Facebook and Google within the respective Norwegian
market are as follows:
i) Product and Service Differentiation: The first and the foremost competitive
advantage that Nettavisen holds over others is the product and service differentiation
(Jonsson and Mattsson 2013). The legacy news publishers like TV2 and Spray or media
platforms like Google and Facebook were responsible for both online and broadcast oriented
activities. Due to these different activities, often they were unable to donate their time
completely within any one segment. However, Nettavisen always had the objective to
participate directly with the various online news websites that are being created by larger
broadcasters and newspapers (Weiss and Taskar 2013). Thus they only focused on online
newspaper services and hence becoming one of the most popular and significant online news
website in the entire Norwegian market.
ii) Clear Strategic Intent: The next significant and important competitive advantage
that Nettavisen has is a clear strategic intent. They have included this particular strategic
intent in their current business model (Zonta, Glisic and Adriaenssens 2014). This is mainly
because they are free from the concerns regarding cannibalising the existing businesses and
then focusing on drawing maximum customers to their website. This is majorly for the
impact of digital media as it is highly dynamic that the front runners confront during a
constant requirement of exploration (Myatt and Wallace 2015). This is different from the
legacy news publishers and news media platforms as they have to balance the online
exploration with the requirement of protecting their respective printed newspaper.

IT PORTFOLIO AND RBV
iii) Freedom of Publishing News: This is yet another important and noteworthy
competitive advantage that Nettavisen has over others. They can publish those news what has
happened, however the newspaper publishers have to think about what news should be kept
for their printed products of next day (Meise et al. 2014). As per the manager of Nettavisen,
they only have one agenda of sharing correct news on time and they are utilizing the Internet
as a medium or an electronic paper. Due to this particular competitive advantage, it is
possible for them to manage the news and share them with their clients easily and effectively.
iv) No Need of Protecting Journalistic Legacy: Being an online news channel,
Nettavisen do not have to protect their journalistic legacy under any circumstance. In the year
of 2013, they made a proper strategic move, which must yield a faster turnover of their writer
with the acquisition of a Norwegian blogging community of blogg.no and thus adding to the
existing portfolio of websites of Nettavisen (Shea et al. 2014). The legacy newspaper
publishers always have the responsibility to protect their journalistic legacy so that more
customers are being drawn to their newspaper. However, this particular online news website,
Nettavisen does not have this responsibility.
v) Movement towards DDBM: The movement towards a data driven business model
is the next significant and vital competitive advantage that Nettavisen has in comparison to
other legacy newspaper publishers and news media platforms like Facebook and Google (Ui
and Yoshizawa 2015). They are pursuing big data strategies after analysis of huge amount of
user’s web browsing data, purchasing habits, blogging data and social media for driving the
editorial decision makers and improving advertiser and users’ experiences. Nettavisen has
considered big data analytical approach for this purpose.

IT PORTFOLIO AND RBV
Task 2
Combination of Major Concepts and Principles of RBV or Resource Based View of the
Firm and IT Portfolio Theory for Assessment and Explanation of its Competitive
Advantages in a Disruptive Turbulent Market
Resource based view or RBV can be referred to as the managerial framework that is
being utilized for determining the strategic resources with the core potential of delivering
comparative advantages to the firm. These resources could even be exploited by the
respective firm for achieving sustainable competitive advantages (Stair and Reynolds 2013).
This RBV focuses on the managerial attention over the internal resources of the firm with an
effort to recognize the asset, capability and competency with the significant potential of
delivering greater competitive advantages. Nettavisen in the Norwegian market has some of
the core and significant competitive advantages over others. Since, the entire Norwegian
market of news publishers is in an extremely turbulent and they have been acquired by two
significant organizations of Spray and TV2 and finally in 2008, it was separated from TV2.
This did not create an issue for Nettavisen rather they obtained major competitive advantages
(Rainer et al. 2013). The RBV of Nettavisen included three distinctive tasks, which are as
follows:
i) Identification of the Potential Key Resources: The first and the most significant
step is to identify the key resources of Nettavisen. The major resources of this organization
included their writers, data and computer systems. Being an online news website, they do not
require several resources in their firm.
ii) Evaluation when these Resources follow VRIN criteria: VRIN criteria refers to
valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable and finally non substitutable (Myatt and Wallace 2015).

IT PORTFOLIO AND RBV
The resources of Nettavisen are extremely valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable and non-
substitutable and they fulfil this criteria.
iii) Developing, Nurturing and Protecting Resources: The final step is developing
and protecting these resources or assets. With the new business model of DDBM, they are
able to protect their resources effectively.
Hence, Nettavisen is able to implement the value creating strategy even in the
turbulent Norwegian market. The concepts of IT portfolio theory can also be involved for
properly assessing and explaining the competitive advantages of Nettavisen within a
disruptive turbulent market. The information system has been helpful to them for maintaining
innovation and creativity. This information system is being utilized by an organization for
helping the individuals to interact in support of business processes (Stair and Reynolds 2013).
The various operations of information like collection, processing, storing and even
distribution is possible with the help of this system. Information system is also helpful for
providing several competitive advantages to the organization and hence eradicating the major
issues and complexities faced here. Moreover, the availability of information and cost
effectiveness are the next significant advantages that Nettavisen has obtained.
Value of information ca be referred to the amount that any decision maker eventually
considers and have the willing to pay for information before making the respective decision.
It is extremely for any organization since it helps in generation of business value and thus
helping the firm’s overall competitiveness with the help of information technology. This
value of information is completely related to the significant value of decision making after
being supported by the organizational information (Petter, DeLone and McLean 2013). The
IT portfolio manager of this organization manage the portfolio of their regular news and even

IT PORTFOLIO AND RBV
plan for the latest updates. The principles of IT portfolio theory that has allowed Nettavisen
to obtain their competitive advantages are as follows:
i) Alignment of Strategies.
ii) Alignment of Governance.
iii) Managing Data Confidently:
iv) Leading Actively.
v) Embracing the Risk over Legacy News Publishers and News Media Platforms.
vi) Being Transparent to the Readers.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that information system is
extremely and significant for understanding as well as generating the value of business within
the organization. Moreover, overall performances are increased for each and every
department of the business. The above report has clearly outlined the detailed description on
the case study of Nettavisen and its gaining of competitive advantages by combining RBV
and IT portfolio theories.

IT PORTFOLIO AND RBV
References
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Myatt, D.P. and Wallace, C., 2015. Cournot competition and the social value of
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Rainer, R.K., Cegielski, C.G., Splettstoesser-Hogeterp, I. and Sanchez-Rodriguez, C.,
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Shea, K., Tildesley, M.J., Runge, M.C., Fonnesbeck, C.J. and Ferrari, M.J., 2014. Adaptive
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Stair, R. and Reynolds, G., 2013. Principles of information systems. Cengage Learning.
Ui, T. and Yoshizawa, Y., 2015. Characterizing social value of information. Journal of
Economic Theory, 158, pp.507-535.

IT PORTFOLIO AND RBV
Weill, P. and Aral, S., 2006. Generating premium returns on your IT investments. MIT Sloan
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Weiss, D.J. and Taskar, B., 2013. Learning adaptive value of information for structured
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