Cases in Competitive Strategy
Summary
The reference has not verified this book in detail; the summary states only what the title, author and subject establish.
Porter compiled this casebook to accompany Competitive Strategy, providing teaching cases through which students could apply the analytical framework.
The reference has not verified the specific cases included. The purpose of such a volume is to supply the raw material against which the framework is exercised: industry situations described in enough detail that a reader can perform the five forces analysis, identify the sources of competitive advantage, assess competitor behaviour and evaluate strategic options.
The framework being applied is Porter's: analysis of industry structure through the threat of entry, the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers, the threat of substitutes and rivalry among existing competitors; the generic strategies of cost leadership, differentiation and focus; competitor analysis examining a rival's goals, assumptions, current strategy and capabilities in order to predict its behaviour; and the analysis of industry evolution, of fragmented industries, of emerging industries, of mature industry transitions and of declining industries.
Cases from 1983 describe industries as they existed then, and every industry covered has changed since. The teaching value of a case does not depend on its currency, since the point is to exercise the analysis rather than to learn the industry, but readers using it for anything other than teaching should recognise this.
Porter's analytical works, Competitive Strategy and Competitive Advantage, and Magretta's summary, which is also in this reference, contain the framework itself. This volume is supplementary teaching material.
Key takeaways 6
- Industry structure analysed through entry threat, buyer and supplier power, substitutes and rivalry explains differences in profitability across industries.
- Competitor analysis should examine a rival's goals, assumptions, current strategy and capabilities in order to predict its behaviour.
- Different industry conditions, including fragmentation, emergence, maturity and decline, require different strategic approaches.
- Applying the framework to a described situation is a different skill from understanding the framework, which is why cases exist.
- The cases describe industries as they existed in the early 1980s and every one has since changed.
- This is supplementary teaching material and the framework itself is set out in Porter's analytical works.
Who should read it
Instructors and students working through Porter's framework who need case material for exercising the analysis.
About Michael E. Porter
Bishop William Lawrence University Professor Emeritus, Harvard Business School; founder, Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness
Competitive Strategy and the five-forces framework are the primary source for industry analysis, and Competitive Advantage supplied the value-chain vocabulary the field still uses.
Where it sits in the reference 2
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