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GB580 Spulber’s Star

Spulber’s Star developed by Daniel F Spulber is a tool designed to assist in global strategic analysis. “Managers face significant challenges in designing global competitive strategy. To obtain the necessary information, the global business manager performs a “Star Analysis.” The manager examines five major geographical factors: the features of the company’s home country, supplier countries, partner countries and the features of the competitor countries.” (Spulber 2007: 37). By conducting the analysis the manager is seeking to identity sources of competitive advantage. For example, if their brand has nationality (Home Country Feature) associated with it that positively differentiates it from its rivals then this is a source of competitive advantage – think of the Mini car, which is quintessentially British and creates value because of this (even though it is now owned by a German company!). Equally the manager must identify any areas for improvement. For example, if the business’ supplier operates in a market where there is considerable political instability (Supplier Country Feature) then the business must consider whether a contingency strategy needs to be developed or if the risk is too great then an alternative supplier may be identified. Listed below the diagram are the features of each point of the star that you should consider in your analysis. Remember you are looking to identify sources of competitive advantage for the business you are analysing and also identifying areas for improvement. This will be particularly valuable later in the course when you will make recommendations for improving the business’ strategy.

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