You have recently applied for a managerial position at Amazon, which is widely considered to be a best$-$cost provider in retail. During your interview with the company, you have been asked to explain the differences between cost drivers and uniqueness drivers. You would correctly say that

Multiple Choice

cost drivers are value chain activities or factors that can have a strong impact on customer value and create differentiation, whereas uniqueness drivers are factors that have a strong effect on the cost of a company's value chaln activities and ability to become a low$-$cost provider.

cost drivers are factors that have a strong effect on the cost of a company's value chain activities and ability to become a low$-$cost provider, whereas uniqueness drivers are value chain activities or factors that can have a strong impact on customer value and create differentiation.

cost drivers involve superior product features and enhanced customer service, while uniqueness drivers involve substituting lower$-$cost inputs whenever there's little or no sacrifice in product quality or product performance and trying to operate facilities at full capacity.

cost drivers include high$-$quality inputs, innovation and technological advances, continuous quality improvement, and improving skills of personnel, marketing, and brand$-$building, while uniqueness drivers include taking full advantage of experience and learning curve effects, employing advanced production technology and process design to improve overall efficiency, and using communication systems and information technology to achieve operating efficiencles.

$$ cost drivers are superior to uniqueness drivers because the former uses the company's bargaining power vis$--$vis suppliers to gain concessions and pursues ways to boost labor productivity and lower overall compensation costs. While the latter focuses primarily on capturing all available economies of scale and taking full advantage of experience and learning curve effects.