Pixar has many competitive advantages within its corporation as evidenced by its current record of having the last 14 movies released and make it to the #1 spot in the box office. Pixar has been able to sustain this competitive advantage by exploiting its opportunities, holding on to their resources, utilizing isolating mechanisms including impediments to imitation. Pixar’s competitive advantages range from its focus on creating films that people of all ages enjoy to its distribution network as well as other cost advantages.
When applying the resourced- based theory to Pixar Animation Studios it is apparent that they have many scarce and imperfectly mobile resources that separate them from their rivals giving them a competitive advantage. One resource would be the software that Pixar created called RenderMan which has won many awards, and …show more content…
One impediment to imitation they use is the superior access to customers. This was achieved by the vertical integration that took place when Disney acquired Pixar. When this took place in 2006 this gave Pixar more of a cost advantage over its rivals due to the market power that Disney has in regards to marketing and distribution in addition to the already existing customer base. One other impediment to imitation that Pixar uses is casual ambiguity. Pixar uses casual ambiguity with extreme detail orientation. Pixar is known for making animation looking as real as possible while keeping it animated. This has been displayed in most of Pixar’s movies such as Brave, with Merida’s hair having 1,500 individual animated curls, and with the approx. 20,000 balloon used in the movie UP! (Gabbard, 2012) This attention to detail has lead Pixar to many nominations and awards for Best Animated