JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT POLICY AND PRACTICE
The Role of Resource Profiles in Creating Competitive Heterogeneity
Within Strategic Groups
Author(s): Peter O. Foreman, Randall E. Westgren
Citation: Peter O. Foreman, Randall E. Westgren, (2012) "The Role of Resource Profiles in Creating Competitive Heterogeneity Within Strategic Groups," Journal of Management Policy and Practice, Vol. 13, Iss. 5, pp. 172 - 189
Article Type: Research paper
Publisher: North American Business Press
Abstract:
This paper posits an integrated view of intra-industry competition, in which one can define the
competitive strategy of any individual firm in terms of a combination of competitive positioning in the
product/market space and profiles of key resources. We examine this by analyzing the patterns of firms’
commitments with respect to these two dimensions of competitive strategy, in the form of product/market-
based and resource-based configurations—i.e. strategic groups—within an industry. The two types of
strategic groups are found to be nearly orthogonal, supporting our contention and suggesting that intr-
industry competition can be depicted as an integration of these two key firm strategy decisions.