Author(s): Srinivas Ainavolu
Strategic management has to do with the competitive advantage enjoyed by firms and is said to be more than operational effectiveness (Porter, 1996). In a typical competitive scenario, a firm is present in an industry based on the perceived ‘fit’. There must be a contextual fit for the firm and then the probability of that firm doing well shall be better. The substitutability to the dot and comma may not be tracked or ever be present. Hence, often used phrase is ‘closely substitutable’, as the idea is customer base shall be common in such context. Thus, industry as we understood is cluster or group of firms in similar offering space to customers. This is an important source of firm performance.