B. The Union Book Store has good student support facilities in respect of a library which is well stocked with books and journal and up-to-date IT equipment. It also has a comprehensive book store facilities. The Union Book Store has had no difficulty in filling its shelfs with the books and journals to the level required by the university close to the store, but has experienced a decrease in the number of students who have bought the books from its. A decreasing number of students are also caused by the increasing trend of student photocopying the books at the photocopy shop.

You are the Union Book Stores management accountant and have been asked by the top manager to review the decreasing rate of students buying the books from the store in order to ensure the store is still having added value to the firm as a whole.

As outlined by Porter (1980, 1985), two main ways in which managers can position their firms to gain a strategic advantage over their competitors, firms need to either differentiate their product(s) or be cost leaders. Porter (1985) argues that firms should analyze their own value chain to bring the strategy into action.

REQUIRED:

1. Critically discuss how can value chain analysis help identify a company's Strenghts and Weaknesses.
2. Use the value chain and competitive forces models to evaluate the impact of the Internet on book publishers and book retail stores such as Union Book Store.