Richard is the owner of a very popular burger joint in his locality. He knows that his burger joint's location and excellent customer service give him a competitive advantage over other burger joints. He is conducting a research to understand if there are other burger joints that provide the same sort of services that his joint does. He also intends to know if his competitors have the financial means to do so and if they seem to care about what his joint offers. In the context of the components of resource-based analysis, Richard is trying to understand if his product or service is _____.

According to the resource based theory, businesses gain competitive advantages over other businesses in the industry based on the strength of their resources.

For competitive advantage to be sustainable however, such resources must be rare, and not easily imitated or substituted.

Richard is carrying out research on his competitors to find out what they have to offer, to know if his product can be easily substituted or replaced.