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What Is Porter's 5 Forces Analysis? What Are the Main Aspects of Porter's 5 Forces Analysis? How to Write Good Porter's 5 Forces Analysis of a Company? Where to Find Information for Porter's 5 Forces Analysis.

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Introduction There is continuing interest in the study of the forces that impact on an organisation, particularly those that can be harnessed to provide competitive advantage. The ideas and models which emerged during the period from 1979 to the mid-1980s (Porter, 1998) were based on the idea that competitive advantage came from the ability to earn a return on investment that was better than the average for the industry sector (Thurlby, 1998). As Porter's 5 Forces analysis deals with factors outside an industry that influence the nature of competition within it, the forces inside the industry (microenvironment) that influence the way in which firms compete, and so the industry's likely profitability is conducted in Porter's five forces …show more content…

The threat of substitution is also affected by switching costs – that is, the costs in areas such as retraining, retooling and redesigning that are incurred when a customer switches to a different type of product or service. It also involves: • Product-for-product substitution (email for mail, fax); is based on the substitution of need; • Generic substitution (Video suppliers compete with travel companies); • Substitution that relates to something that people can do without (cigarettes, alcohol). Force 4: Buyer Power Buyer power is one of the two horizontal forces that influence the appropriation of the value created by an industry (refer to the diagram). The most important determinants of buyer power are the size and the concentration of customers. Other factors are the extent to which the buyers are informed and the concentration or differentiation of the competitors. Kippenberger (1998) states that it is often useful to distinguish potential buyer power from the buyer's willingness or incentive to use that power, willingness that derives mainly from the "risk of failure" associated with a product's use. • This force is relatively high where there a few, large players in the market, as it is the case with retailers an grocery stores; • Present where there is a large number of undifferentiated, small suppliers, such as small farming businesses supplying large grocery companies; • Low cost of switching

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