This paper aims at establishing the existence of systematic differences in the nature of competitive strategies available to individual firms across industries. By means of qualitative content analysis, we extracted a matrix of 76 industries times 12 strategies reported as being characteristic...

Biotech revolution changed the pharmaceutical industry, triggering a wave of risky collaborations between rivals. Based on the research findings, we answer the question why cooperation in the field of immuno-oncology is a better strategy for Pfizer and Merck KGaA, which aim to achieve...

Resource-based advantages are ‘built', not bought, and have typically emerged from complex development processes that are, to a significant degree, ‘unmanaged'. Set against this reality are strategy process prescriptions that encourage managers to adopt deliberate, formal, analytical...

Functional analysis as set forth in the last chapter decomposes a technical system into functional components that do things to advance the system’s purpose and the goals of its designers. Functional analysis in turn can be used to construct value structure maps of technical systems. Such maps...

Production runs suffer from inadvertent quality variation. There are good apples; there are bad apples (also known as “seconds”). The Alchian-Allen theorem states that a common per-unit charge on two goods differentiated only by quality, increases the relative export demand for the higher...

The North Dakota Railroad War of 1905, which pitted a potential entrant (the Soo Line) against an established monopolist incumbent (the Great Northern Railway), offers a lucid empirical example of strategic behavior, and in particular the potential for entry deterrence through product...

This paper investigates spatial competition and spatial interdependence in two key strategic variables in franchising: the proportion of franchised outlets (franchise proportion) and the royalty rate. Employing a simultaneous equations model and data from 353 U.S. franchise chains in 43 sectors...

Supermarkets are a key route to market for suppliers of food and household consumable products in South Africa. The growth, performance and strategies of the retail industry driven by JSE-listed supermarket chains therefore has important implications for suppliers and, in turn, for the...