A Contingency View of Porter's “Generic Strategies”

According to Porter, cost leadership and product differentiation can be pursued simultaneously only under rare conditions: It is also unclear how these strategies can be implemented. In this article Porter's generic strategies are linked to external preconditions. This approach shows that the generic strategies are not mutually exclusive and that each strategy may be linked to a variety of strategic means. The implications that these results have for structuring organizations are discussed.

[1]  Thomas J. Peters,et al.  Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution , 1988 .

[2]  Roderick E. White.  Generic business strategies, organizational context and performance: An empirical investigation , 1986 .

[3]  P. H. Friesen,et al.  Porter's (1980) Generic Strategies and Performance: An Empirical Examination with American Data , 1986 .

[4]  T. Peters,et al.  A passion for excellence: The leadership difference , 1986 .

[5]  M. Porter.  Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance , 1985 .

[6]  Gregory G. Dess,et al.  Porter's (1980) Generic Strategies as Determinants of Strategic Group Membership and Organizational Performance , 1984 .

[7]  G. Day.  Strategic Market Planning: The Pursuit of Competitive Advantage , 1984 .

[8]  S. Wheelwright,et al.  Restoring Our Competitive Edge: Competing Through Manufacturing , 1984 .

[9]  D. Hambrick.  High Profit Strategies in Mature Capital Goods Industries: A Contingency Approach , 1983 .

[10]  D. Hambrick.  An Empirical Typology of Mature Industrial-Product Environments , 1983 .

[11]  R. D. Buzzell,et al.  Product Quality, Cost Position and Business Performance: A Test of Some Key Hypotheses , 1983 .

[12]  Charles H. Fine.  Quality control and learning in productive systems , 1983 .

[13]  O. Williamson.  The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach , 1981, American Journal of Sociology.

[14]  R. Caves.  Industrial Organization, Corporate Strategy and Structure , 1980 .

[15]  Allan D. Shocker,et al.  Multiattribute Approaches for Product Concept Evaluation and Generation: A Critical Review , 1979 .

[16]  P. Green,et al.  Conjoint Analysis in Consumer Research: Issues and Outlook , 1978 .

[17]  R E Miles,et al.  Organizational strategy, structure, and process. , 1978, Academy of management review. Academy of Management.

[18]  William J. Abernathy,et al.  Patterns of Industrial Innovation , 1978 .

[19]  Charles W. Hofer.  Toward a Contingency Theory of Business Strategy , 1975 .

[20]  R. Rumelt.  Strategy, structure, and economic performance , 1974 .

[21]  Allan D. Shocker,et al.  A Consumer-Based Methodology for the Identification of New Product Ideas , 1974 .

[22]  Allan D. Shocker,et al.  Linear programming techniques for multidimensional analysis of preferences , 1973 .

[23]  K. Weick.  The social psychology of organizing , 1969 .

[24]  P. Lawrence,et al.  Organization and Environment: Managing Differentiation and Integration , 1967 .

[25]  J. Bain.  Barriers to new competition , 1957 .