PAWS SWOT Analysis The SWOT analysis is a comprehensive analysis and review of the organizational dynamic, inclusive of the internal and external environmental analysis. The internal analysis is a function of the internal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The effectiveness of the analysis ostensibly reveals the level to where the organization can be identified, relative to industry competition. Prior to engaging into the SWOT, a brief literature review is included to embolden the thought process regarding the analysis of the strategic landscape for Pets Assisting With Students (PAWS).

However, there have been addendums to the methodology inherent to the effective practice of conducting a SWOT analysis. The strategic change includes the focus to the resources-based SWOT analysis that does analyze the resource structure of the firm as a function of the internal and external environment, relative to the market share of the organization and the total available market within the industry.

Literature Review

According to Valentin (2001), "Resource-based SWOT analysis alleviates shortcomings of traditional SWOT analysis not by eliminating checklists, but by focusing on systemic causal issues contemporary strategic management and marketing theory, especially the resource-based view of the firm (e.g., Wernerfelt 1984; Conner 1991; Amit and Schoemaker 1993; Peteraf 1993; Hunt 2000). However, it also draws notably from two complementary frameworks, Porter's (1979, 1980) well-known competitive forces paradigm and Brandenburger and Nalebuff's value net (1995, 1996)." (Valentin, 2001)

According to Valentin (2001), "From a resource-based view every firm is a unique bundle of resources that determines which external circumstances afford opportunities and which pose threats. Further, comparative advantages and disadvantages in resources are tantamount to strengths and weaknesses, respectively, that engender cost and differentiation advantages or disadvantages in competitive product markets (Day and Wensley 1988; Porter 1980, 1991; Hunt 2000)." (Valentin, 2001)

External Forces & Trends

Legal/Regulatory Environment

The market for a not-for-profit that has a business model similar to PAWS is indeed facilitated by current regulatory and political favoritism that seeks to enable the troubled youth. According to Newman (2000), "The first thing children can do is to be responsible pet owners themselves, says Rosemary Ficken, animal control...

Louis Animal Regulation Center. "Kids need to give their own pets lots of love and attention and make sure they always have enough food and fresh water, have a collar and ID tags and are spayed or neutered," says Rosemary Ficken." (Newman, 2000)
Additionally, according Newman (2000), "Start an animal protection club at your school or in your neighborhood: Look for stray or injured pets and wildlife and report them to your local human society, animal-control organization or other appropriate group." (Newman, 2000) Indeed, the environmental analysis has clearly established PAWS as a relevant non-profit business model that does have 'competition' in the market.

The regulatory environment is favorable to the operation of PAWS subject to the local, state, and federal constraint. Indeed, the lack of prohibitive regulation to limit the operations of PAWS is in fact the opposite. There are many tax benefits available to organizations such as PAWS that seek to make a social contribution by enabling at-risk youth to yield a better and more productive life. There is no identifiable restriction that will inherently limit the mission, vision, and goals of PAWS subject to the realization of its underlying cause.

Social Forces

An example of a communal farm with regard to the psychosocial benefit of establishing a pet-based relationship is provided by Dunlap & Johnson (2010), "This ethnography explores the competing concepts of community that are deployed within the context of a communal farm. Resident of the Farm articulate oppositional concepts of community that are based on familial and instrumental relationships. The concepts of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft are utilized to better understand the manner in which these discourses manifest themselves in the lived experiences of Farm residents. The contradictory nature of these conceptualizations suggests that the concept of community cannot be treated as a monolithic reality within scholarly inquiry." (Dunlap, Johnson, 2010)

The social forces underlying the development and success of PAWS are critical to the success of the organization. PAWS is a social organization geared to engaging the youth such that pets are seen a socially viable and relevant intermediary to link the often troubled and distant personality of an independent youth such that socially, the mission and vision becomes acceptable to the broader society and is appealing to the market to which the organization wishes to…