Michael Porter's Missing Chapter: The Risk of Antitrust Violations

S uccessful executives like Mr. Buffet are vitally concerned with the effect that industry conditions have on the performance of their businesses. Through his very popular books, Competitive Strategy and Competitive Advantage,3 Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter has contributed to the understanding of why industry structure is such an important determinant of an organization's success and what strategies may influence that structure. His awardwinning books are among the few on top-level, or strategic, management that are highly valued by both academicians and business executives.4 Porter's ideas are now a required part of standard textbooks on strategic management.' His major accomplishment is the deft translation of concepts of competitive analysis and behavior from the academic field of industrial organization economics (10) into a language and format that is directly applicable to regularly encountered business problems. Yet, precisely because his work has received (and deserves) high praise, wide recognition, and frequent use, we believe it is important to highlight an error of omission in these two books a general disregard of U.S. antitrust law. Risks of violating these laws are inherent in a large number of the defensive and complementary product strategies discussed by Porter, but he generally ignores them. In addition, there is little evidence that academicians and executives who use his work pay much attention to these risks. We believe their consideration should be an integral part of this otherwise excellent framework. USFL vs. NFL