Analyzing Uber's IT Portfolio Theory and Resource-Based View (RBV)

This case study examines Uber's strategic utilization of IT portfolio theory and resource-based view (RBV) to achieve a competitive advantage in the transportation industry. It identifies key IT assets such as Uber engineering, driver and passenger apps, geolocation, and payment processing systems. The analysis also explores Uber's valuable resources, including its network, application platform, and brand image. The VRIO analysis assesses Uber's resources for value, rarity, imitability, and organization, highlighting areas of strength and potential improvement. The study concludes that Uber's successful synchronization of its IT portfolio, combined with its strategic resource management, contributes to its long-term success and market position. Desklib offers a wealth of similar case studies and academic resources for students.

Running head: IT PORTFOLIO THEORY AND RESOURCE BASED VIEW
IT portfolio theory and Resource Based View: Uber
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:

1IT PORTFOLIO THEORY AND RESOURCE BASED VIEW
Executive Summary
It has been found that Uber has amazingly changed the transportation system all over the world.
Infact Uber has adopted almost all the market winning strategies from past 4 to 5 years. From the
business model canvas of Uber it is identified that the key IT assets that are successfully
maintaining by Uber include Uber engineering, basic features of the driver app and the passenger
app. Apart from that, the other IT assets of Uber include geolocation, booking interface of the
passenger app, its push notification, payment processing, login and registration approach, price
calculator, customer service desk and rating and review. The key resources of Uber are its
network which includes both the driver and the passenger, the application platform for their
passengers and drivers, the improvement algorithm, network growth and mostly the maintenance
of the brand image. In order to channel the brand of Uber is dependent on social media channel.

2IT PORTFOLIO THEORY AND RESOURCE BASED VIEW
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
IT portfolio theory View..................................................................................................................4
RBV theory and VRIO analysis......................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
Appendices....................................................................................................................................10
Appendix 1.................................................................................................................................10
Appendix 2.................................................................................................................................11

3IT PORTFOLIO THEORY AND RESOURCE BASED VIEW
Introduction
In regards to innovation approach and business management some organizations are
there, that are leading the competitive market efficiently. The company nominated in the report
whose IT portfolio theory, resources and capabilities are demonstrated is Uber (Ng 2016). In
order to grab customer globally the innovative business model and IT asset management
approach used by the Uber is very advanced and new as well.
After analyzing the detail financial report of Uber it is identified that there are many
companies including mew startup as well are becoming tough competitor to Uber due to their
efficient services and strong customer base (Feng 2017). Companies that are competing against
Uber include Zoox, DoorDash, and technical titans such as Amazon, Alphabet, Apple etc. Apart
from that the other direct competitors of the company are Lyft, Ola, Creem, Didi, Yandex.Taxi,
Taxify etc.
Uber uses marketing mix strategy considering the demographic as well as geographic
segmentation variable. It helped Uber to set its pricing category service accordingly. For the
sharing of wallet customer convey in and to make sure the way through which wallet size can be
increased are determined by Uber with differentiating targeting strategy.
For the business model canvas of Uber it is analyzed that, Uber’s customer base is strong.
The relationship with customers is developed is different to the drivers, public and regulators.
For the drivers and riders Uber is focused on safety, fair and secure (Zhu and Laptev 2017). For
public it is communal and social footprint consideration and for the regulator it is about taxation,
compliance and transparency.

4IT PORTFOLIO THEORY AND RESOURCE BASED VIEW
IT portfolio theory View
After focusing on different IT assets it is identified that for past 5 years the company has
invested a lot in their innovations and to maintain their asset class in terms of informational,
infrastructural, transactional and strategies. In order to get real business values, commercial
position and competitive advantages in the market each of the IT asset are needed to managed
and well maintained by Uber.
From the transactional point of view it invested to improve the customer base. It is
determined that Uber get benefitted from its customers and riders. For the passengers or riders
Uber implemented UberX, Uberpool, UberBLACK, and UberSUV (Alley 2016). On the other
hand, the driver base is successfully segmented through their locations. The drivers are allowed
to use their Own Cars even willingly for either fulltime or part time.
The infrastructure of Uber is also improved a lot within these 5 years. Uber has
implemented platform app. In order to improve the connection stronger with drivers and
passengers the activities on which Uber worked effectively include marketing, sales, promotional
activities, advanced communication with the drivers as well as partners and customers (Hall,
Horton and Knoepfle 2017). Infact the overall customer support infrastructure is also improved a
lot with the New Uber Driver App. This app was a recent app developed by Uber mainly for
their driver. It gives them opportunity to choose their passengers and location.
There are other IT assets in terms of strategy used by Uber. these days hiring the drivers
and properly handling them considering insurance as well as payouts through a very secured
medium has became one of the top priorities for Uber. In order to correct any other shortcoming
the company is focused on their activities that include improvement in the value proposals and

5IT PORTFOLIO THEORY AND RESOURCE BASED VIEW
data analysis (Hall et al. 2018). The key resources that Uber uses to improve their operational
and functional experiences include network for riders and drivers, the platform application
available for both the riders and drivers. The company is focused on improving their algorithm
and data analysis approaches. The main objective of Uber is to maintain their brand image
among the competitors and consumers as well.
RBV theory and VRIO analysis
The advanced technology group of Uber is still working on driverless or self driving cars
but not yet implemented all over the world. It is recognized that these days strategic resources
are evenly distributed in all the competitor company of Uber. Therefore, Uber should not expect
that obtaining sustainable competitive advantages will be easier (Larcker and Tayan 2017). The
concept of resource and capabilities used by the Uber are elaborated below followed by
Reviewed Based View Theory and VRIO analysis as well. VRIO analysis of Uber will help to
analyze as well as summarize the sustainable competitive advantages of the company. The detail
analysis is elaborated in the below section:
Valuable
From the VRIO analysis of Uber its has been fund that, the financial resources used by
Uber are much valuable as with this company successfully makes investment on external
technical and business opportunities. Infact external market threats also get resolved with these
financial resources (Cook, Patel and O’Rourke 2018). The employees and staffs are the most
valuable resource for the Uber. Fifty percent of the Uber workforce are well trained which direct
the company towards technical innovation and competitive success as well. The retention rate

6IT PORTFOLIO THEORY AND RESOURCE BASED VIEW
and loyalty shown by the employees of Uber are also higher than any other similar service
provider organizations.
As a result the end consumers of Uber are getting greater values as per their daily
demand. The patents of Uber are also value for its competitive success. Without any sort of
competitive interface Uber can sell their products. It also gives higher licensing revenue to the
business firm (Cramer and Krueger 2016). The distribution network of Uber is the other value
resources which make sure that the companies leading promotional activities will help sale their
product efficiently. The research and development department and cost structure of Uber are
valuable enough. The cost structure makes possible investment on innovative ideas developed by
the R&D department of Uber such as driverless car, Uber driver’s app etc.
Rare
It has been analyzed that there are few companies present whose financial resources are
strong. Uber got strong financial resource thus; this feature is rare for Uber. The large percentage
of the employees and staffs work for Uber are highly skilled and educated which is not available
for other company (Davidov 2016). The beautiful work environment and the compensation offer
to the employees make sure lower rate of turnover. Thus, the employee base of Uber is rare. The
patent of Uber is very rare and no other similar competitive service provider use the same patent.
Imitable
The financial resources used by the Uber are very strong and thus cannot be easily
imitated by any other similar service providers easily. From VRIO analysis it is determined that,
through prolonged commercial profit Uber has established their financial base. Therefore, similar
competitor companies may require long time period to create such financial base. In order to

7IT PORTFOLIO THEORY AND RESOURCE BASED VIEW
improve both the technical and non technical skills of employees Uber arranges on job training
program. From the VRIO analysis it is determined that developing such employee base is neither
easy nor imitable for the other competitor companies (Kittilaksanawong and Afanyan 2018). The
patents of Uber are much different and very well organized therefore imitating such patent is not
an easy job for the competitor companies. Other competitor companies may offer an employee’s
huge hike on their salary to become a part of their companies but imitating similar strong
workforce will be difficult. The distribution network developed by Uber is very costly and strong
to imitate.
Organization
From VRIO analysis it is determined that, the financial resources for Uber is very well
organized for capturing values. The R&D department strategically uses the financial resources to
avoid loss. Thus, the resources are proved to be source for sustainable competitive advantages.
The patents of Uber are not so very well organized (Angrist, Caldwell and Hall 2017). Thus, it
can be said that for complete potential Uber does not use the patent. This unused competitive
advantage can change the success line of Uber much. The Uber distribution network is very
strong and well organized. Therefore, prove to sustain competitive long term advantages.
Conclusion
From the overall discussion it is concluded that, Uber has successfully synchronized their
IT portfolio in strategies by balancing the cost and agility. The strategic intent of the company is
long terms and stable and the current strategy of the company is focused on aspects like services,
customers, structure, investment and pricing. Uber smart phone application gives on demand
services to their customer all over the word. It helps to connect the interested passengers or riders

8IT PORTFOLIO THEORY AND RESOURCE BASED VIEW
and drivers. However the technical and innovative streamline process of Uber has shown it long
terms success path and a very high amount future commercial turnover.
References
Alley, J.K., 2016. The impact of Uber technologies on the New York city transportation industry.
Angrist, J.D., Caldwell, S. and Hall, J.V., 2017. Uber vs. taxi: A driver’s eye view (No. w23891).
National Bureau of Economic Research.
Cook, J., Patel, R. and O’Rourke, J.S., 2018. Uber technologies, Inc.: Accountability in
corporate culture. The Eugene D. Fanning Center for Business Communication, Mendoza
College of Business, University of Notre Dame.
Cramer, J. and Krueger, A.B., 2016. Disruptive change in the taxi business: The case of
Uber. American Economic Review, 106(5), pp.177-82.
DAS, S.P. and DB, S.R., 2017. Transformation Of Urban Transportation-Strategic Perspective A
Case Of Uber Technologies, Inc. International, Journal of Research in Business
Management, 5(3), pp.69-78.
Davidov, G., 2016. The status of Uber drivers: A purposive approach. Spanish Labour Law and
Employment Relations Journal (2017), Forthcoming, pp.17-7.
Feng, B., 2017. Learn from Uber: a study of dynamic capability in Chinese online pharmacy
industry (Doctoral dissertation).
Hall, J.V., Hicks, J., Kleiner, M.M. and Solomon, R., 2018. Occupational Licensing of Uber
Drivers. Unpublished working paper presented at the ASSA.

9IT PORTFOLIO THEORY AND RESOURCE BASED VIEW
Hall, J.V., Horton, J.J. and Knoepfle, D.T., 2017. Labor market equilibration: Evidence from
uber. URL http://john-joseph-horton. com/papers/uber_price. pdf, working paper.
Kittilaksanawong, W. and Afanyan, M., 2018. Uber technologies Inc.: re-entering the South
Korean Taxi hailing service after the eviction. Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies.
Larcker, D.F. and Tayan, B., 2017. Governance Gone Wild: Epic Misbehavior at Uber
Technologies. Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University Closer Look
Series: Topics, Issues and Controversies in Corporate Governance No. CGRP-70, pp.18-3.
Ng, S., 2016. Uber Technologies Inc. as a Disruptive Innovation.
Zhu, L. and Laptev, N., 2017, November. Deep and confident prediction for time series at uber.
In 2017 IEEE International Conference on Data Mining Workshops (ICDMW) (pp. 103-110).
IEEE.

10IT PORTFOLIO THEORY AND RESOURCE BASED VIEW
Appendices
Appendix 1
Business Model Canvas of Uber

11IT PORTFOLIO THEORY AND RESOURCE BASED VIEW
Appendix 2