Benchmarking involves

a$.$ checking whether a company has achieved more of its financial and strategic objectives over the past five years relative to its direct competitors.

b$.$ studying whether a company's resource strengths are more$/$less powerful than the resource strengths of rival companies.

c$.$ comparing how different companies perform various value chain activities and then making cross$-$company comparisons of the costs and effectiveness of these activities.

d$.$ comparing the best practices in one industry against the best practices in another industry.

e$.$ studying how a company's competitive capabilities stack up against the competitive capabilities of selected companies known to have world$-$class competitive capabilities.