write a discussion post response with peer reviewed articles to this: The chosen case study for this week's discussion post was that of Samsung Electronics, a company that dominated the consumer electronics industry, surpassing Philips, Panasonic, and Sony (Dyer et al., 2019). This case study delved into the backgrounds of each company and highlighted the result of Sony's overtaking of the competitors through strategic efforts such as "massive investments in R&D, vertical integration of being a manufacturing supplier, and global expansion". Samsung became exceptional in one specific area, which was manufacturing; one of the mass-produced items was the black-and-white TV, which was the beginning of mass production of several other products (Dyer et al., 2019). Samsung's major products were home appliances, smartphones, televisions, and semiconductors, which rapidly evolved the industry's takeover by the organization with the supply chain efficiency and design excellence.

SWOT analysis

The following categories are the SWOT analysis of the Samsung Electronics organization, which allows for the greatest value through the strengths and weaknesses aspect of the analysis. The strengths section of the analysis are ways that Samsung has done well to have the organization become successful in these areas that Dyer et al. (2019) highlighted. The weaknesses outlined below are also big areas that the organization could essentially maximize potential through addressing these weaknesses and mitigating them before these aspects become problems in the future. The following information is an assessment of the information shared within the case study by Dyer et al. (2019).

Strengths

• "Global Localization" Strategy: this is where Samsung invested in the research and development of products in seven different regions and allowed for the designers to alter products to the demands of the regional market needs and cultural expectations.
• New management initiative: Introduced by Lee Byung-chul that emphasized decentralization, innovativeness, globalization, and outward-looking management
• Supply chain efficiency: The fact that Samsung produces some products on its own can reduce operational costs and customer demand fulfillment faster.
• R&D investment: Samsung made large financial contributions towards the research and development of the design and products.

Weaknesses

• Turnaround time of educating employees in the design factor of engineering may give a competitive advantage to other organizations, as the training is a year-long course in mechanical engineering that aims at empowering the designers to perfect their ideas.
• In the 1980s, the brand image suffered in terms of how the organization was known for "cheap Korean goods," which was due to costs of manufactured goods being low; however, this did come at the cost that customers were not seeing Samsung products perform as intended.

Opportunities

• Sustainability: As a large corporation, Samsung has the influential power to be a sustainable organization, which can then, in turn, influence its consumers to reduce their carbon footprints, as well, given that Samsung is a manufacturer as well.
• Software/ Technology development: Consistent innovation with software or technological development is always an opportunity to be a better organization and gain a competitive advantage.
• AI-driven technology is another area of improvement for Samsung to introduce artificial intelligence into some of the products already available to enhance features.

Threats

• One major threat is larger corporations such as Apple or Tesla, as these companies are also in the electronics industry with a hunger to beat the competition as well. It already occurred in 2012 that Samsung had violated Apple's patents, thus resulting in a $1.05 billion settlement for damages.
• Rushed manufacturing: to compete with growing competitors Samsung can run the risk of rushing research and development or production efforts to expedite product launches which can result in faulty consumer products such as the Galaxy Note 7 that caught fire due to defective batteries.

Increasing Competitive Advantage and Innovation

Irawan (2024) emphasized that the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis of an organization allows for competitive advantage and innovation to thrive for the user's organization. The SWOT analysis is a strategic tool that can capitalize on the factors incorporated; an effective analysis will assist in gaining a competitive advantage through the company's strategy of optimizing strengths and opportunities. Innovation can be increased specifically by assessing the opportunities and threats portions of the analysis, as there is an in-depth understanding of the opportunities for the company to grow, and mitigating the potential threats of the organization simultaneously.