Overview

Google, IBM & Meta Certificates – 40% Off

One plan covers every Professional Certificate on Coursera.

Building Competitive Advantage examines how organizations create lasting competitive advantage by leveraging complementary products, services, technologies, and partnerships. Building on the Value Stick framework, learners explore complement strategy, ecosystem design, complementor relationships, and shifting profit pools to understand how organizations increase customer willingness to pay and strengthen their market position. Through real-world examples across multiple industries, learners discover how strategic ecosystems create value beyond the core product and support long-term business success.

Syllabus

Identifying and Creating Complements

Why do some products become more valuable when used together? In this module, you will examine how complements increase willingness to pay and create competitive advantage. Through strategic frameworks and company examples, you'll explore how firms identify complements, distinguish complements from product attributes, and design ecosystems that create more customer value. You'll also encounter customer journey mapping and examine how organizations use complements to expand beyond core offerings to strengthen their competitive position.

Pricing Complements and Shifting Profit Pools

Why does value often migrate away from the product customers buy? In this module, you will examine how firms use complements to influence willingness to pay, shape customer behavior, and capture value across broader ecosystems. Through strategic frameworks and company examples, you'll explore complement pricing, ecosystem strategy, shifting profit pools, and delayed value capture. You'll also examine how organizations such as Apple and firms in the digital music industry redesigned their business models to create and capture value as complementary products and services transformed the industry.

Ecosystems, Control, and Complementor Conflict

Why does value often migrate away from a company’s core product? In this module, you will examine how firms use complements to shape customer behavior, ecosystem participation, and long-term value capture. Through strategic frameworks and company examples, you'll explore complement pricing, shifting profit pools, ecosystem strategy, and recurring revenue models. The module also examines how organizations such as Apple redesigned their ecosystems to capture value as complementary services and experiences became increasingly important sources of competitive advantage.

Complements, Substitutes, and Strategic Integration

How should firms respond when a new technology appears to be both an opportunity and a threat? In this module, you will examine the strategic relationship between complements and substitutes and explore why those relationships are often difficult to classify in emerging markets. Through examples including Ripple and Farfetch, you'll analyze how technologies, channels, and business models can strengthen existing offerings, compete with them, or evolve between the two over time. The module highlights why successful strategists continually reassess ecosystem relationships as markets and technologies change.

Conclusion

How do firms design ecosystems that create and sustain competitive advantage? In this concluding module, you will integrate concepts from across the course to evaluate complement opportunities, ecosystem relationships, value-capture strategies, and emerging substitute threats. Through a strategic role play, you will assess how organizations can use complements to increase customer value, strengthen competitive position, and adapt as technologies and markets evolve. You will be challenged to move beyond individual frameworks and develop a coherent ecosystem strategy for long-term success.