Toward an integrative framework of strategies that work

Abstract

Competitive strategy is at the heart of the field of strategic management. But despite years of academic research, there is a lot of debate about what constitutes competitive strategy and how effective competitive strategies lead to superior performance. In this article, we argue that strategy is about making clear choices (“focus”) and about being different (“differentiation”) on four strategic dimensions, including: Whom do we serve?, What do we provide?, What is our value proposition?, and How do we realize all this? Although recent work has pointed to these conclusions, this paper goes one step further by providing more concrete ideas as to what focus and differentiation really mean for each of the various dimensions and why they matter. As such, we provide managers a framework that can be used to test the extent to which their strategies have the potential to be effective.