Author: Anonymous

Strategic groups are firms in different industries following the same or similar strategies

Analyzing the internal environment enables a firm to determine what it MIGHT DO by identifying what opportunities and threats exist

Because recessions and recoveries follow certain patterns, firms can study the economic environment to predict economic trends. This was particularly valuable in dealing with the recovery after the global recession of 2008-2009

Switching costs, access to distribution channels, economies of scale, large numbers of competing firms, and slow industry growth are some of the entry barriers that may affect the threat of new entrants to an industry

A competitor’s capabilities can be measured by studying its current strategies and future objectives

The competitor analysis is the final part of the external environment analysis and focuses on each company against which a firm directly competes (for example, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, Home Depot and Lowe’s, and Airbus and Boeing)

The strengths of the five competitive forces are similar across strategic groups within an industry

Competitor analysis is focused on the factors and conditions influencing an industry’s profitability potential.

The global segment of the external environment provides many opportunities for large corporations but does not represent an appropriate market segment for family business firms, even large ones

China allows its firms to copy, or pirate, software created by firms in the United States and other countries. The Chinese firms take the intellectual property created by the other companies and then sell the resulting products for a lower price, undercutting the sales of the companies that invested in the product development. This activity represents a threat in the general environment that might prevent the U.S. companies from achieving strategic competitiveness