chapter 3
The industrial organization approach
The industrial organization way of strategic thinking initially directs us to the industry in which a firm competes. It lets us consider the industry forces that are at play there to evaluate whether the firm is capable of a suitable response. Incorporating more recent developments in how business is taking shape, the notion of industry is losing its relevance and is increasingly being replaced with the notion of ecosystem, recognizing that firm performance not only depends on how a firm competes but also on how it cooperates. Nevertheless, the industrial organization approach is credited as the first systematically thought-through treatment of strategy content.
