Free WiFi as Strategic Competitive Advantage for Fast-Food Outlet in the Knowledge Era

Problem statement: The growth of food outlets in Malaysia brings about the stiff competition among the players in food industry. To remain competitive, each outlet needs to adopt its own strategy in order to secure their return on investment and profitability. In knowledge era, technology has become an added value in achieving competitive advantage. The aim of this research is to assess whether providing free WiFi can be a strategy to remain competitive. Porter’s 5forces competitive model is adopted as the basis for the assessment. Approach: Two phases of data collection using qualitative methodology were planned and rolled out. The first phase involved surveying and observing three regions within a selected state, while the second phase involved interviewing the identified food outlet’s manager. A set of interview questions was formulated based on the 5 areas of porter’s model which includes bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of customers, threat of substitutions, threat of new entrants and existing rivalries. In addition to the existing five forces, information regarding government policy and initiatives was also collected. Results: Result has shown that by that offering free WiFi to meet the customers’ needs, it can help to generate revenue increase of as high as 50% thus ensuring the food outlet to stay competitive. Conclusion: This is more visible when dealing with case of food outlets at same area are targeting the same group of customers as what had been observed in this research. This research provides a good reference to other food outlets that yet to adopt any strategy in order to stay competitive.