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We investigate the dynamics of competitive repositioning of firms in the deregulated U.S. airline industry (1979–1995) in terms of a firm's target market, strategic posture, and resource endowment relative to other firms in the industry. We suggest that, despite strong inertia in competitive positions, the direction of repositioning responds to external and internal alignment considerations. For external alignment, we examined how firms changed their competitive positioning to mimic the positions of similar, successful firms, and to differentiate themselves when experiencing intense rivalry. For internal alignment, we examined how firms changed their position in each dimension to align with the other dimensions of positioning. This internal alignment led to convergent positioning moves for firms with similar resource endowments and strategic postures, and divergent moves for firms with similar target markets and strategic postures. The evidence suggests that repositioning moves in terms of target markets and resource endowments are more sensitive to external and internal alignment considerations, but that changes in strategic posture are subject to very high inertia and do not appear to respond well to alignment considerations.

In this study, we develop understanding of factors that shape the propensity of market incumbents to collaborate in response to the threat posed by new market entrants. We are particularly interested in instances when a market's competitive structure becomes unsettled by new entrants who engage in nonconforming strategic tactics. In such situations, we propose two factors – strategic similarity among competitors and market-share instability – will systematically shape competitors' collaborative response to new entrants. To test our theory, we use data on strategic tactics and collaborative dynamics in the US airline industry from 1989 to 2010. We demonstrate that greater strategic similarity among a market's incumbents increases the likelihood of cooperation in response to the threat of a nonconforming new entrant, while greater market-share instability reduces cooperative response. Through this study, we extend existing understanding of the contextual circumstances under which established competitors recognize their mutual interests and band together.

In this chapter we develop a new approach, based on the identification of strategy classes, to study how firms face multiple demands. The procedure that we propose (called Relational Class Analysis) stems from an analysis of the similarity of associative patterns across multiple observable outcomes, which reflect the underlying set of choices firms make to similarly address demands. Empirically, the study of 18 financial and extra-financial performance outcomes for 3,655 firms shows the existence of three main strategic classes. Drawing on our analysis, we redefine strategy as the set of committed decisions undertaken to resolve trade-offs between multiple concurrent objectives and discuss the implications of our approach for eight core questions for strategy and organizational theory.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate significant impact of partner similarity on the success of horizontal alliances in logistics service providers (LSPs) from China.

Primary data were collected via questionnaire distribution to 380 Chief Executive Officers and Managing Directors in 262 small and medium logistics enterprises in China. There are 316 valid questionnaires for further analysis with 83 percent accuracy in response rate. Structural equation modeling was used to test the impact of partner similarity on alliance management capability, stability and performance.

Partner similarity and logistics alliance management capability (LAMC) are positively correlated to alliance stability and performance in horizontal alliances among Chinese LSPs, especially competence similarity and cultural similarity. Moreover, alliance stability mediates the impact of partner similarity and LAMC on alliance performance.

The basic limitation of this research is to collect data just from small and medium logistics enterprises that operate in China with sample size (n=316). This research could further be extended to other regions in China or other countries.

This research verifies the positive relationship between partner fit and management capability. Besides, based on research findings, the research proposes guidelines for LSPs pursuing horizontal alliances

This research proposes an experimental model for Chinese LSPs to cooperate successfully and build horizontal alliances in order to increase their effective customer response capability.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest that business group (BG) networks act as conduits for diffusion of information and resources pertaining to internationalization. It considers three types of BG networks arising from three different types of ties- director interlock, direct equity, and indirect equity. In particular, it examines the effects of cohesiveness of these BG networks on the diffusion of internationalization within a BG.

Drawing on social network perspective, it is hypothesized that, for each type of network, cohesiveness enhances within-BG similarity of the extent of internationalization. An empirical investigation is conducted on a sample of 55 Indian BGs for the period 2009-2013.

Results support all the three hypotheses, suggesting that higher level of cohesiveness leads to higher level of within-BG similarity of the extent of internationalization, for all three network types.

Findings of this study contribute to the BG literature by examining the effects of BG network cohesiveness on the diffusion of internationalization within a BG, for three types of BG networks.

This article aims to explore how understanding the challenges faced by companies' attempts to create competitive advantage through their human resources and HRM practices can be enhanced by insights into the concept of strategic groups within industries. Based within the international hotel industry, this study identifies how strategic groups emerge in the analysis of HRM practices and approaches. It sheds light on the value of strategic groups as a way of readdressing the focus on firm and industry level analyses.

Senior human resource executives and their teams across eight international hotel companies (IHCs) were interviewed in corporate and regional headquarters, with observations and the collection of company documentation complementing the interviews.

The findings demonstrate that strategic groups emerge from analysis of the HRM practices and strategies used to develop hotel general managers (HGMs) as strategic human resources in the international hotel industry. The value of understanding industry structures and dynamics and intermediary levels of analysis are apparent where specific industries place occupational constraints on their managerial resources and limit the range of strategies and expansion modes companies can adopt.

This study indicates that further research on strategic groups will enhance the theoretical understanding of strategic human resource management and specifically the forces that act to constrain the achievement of competitive advantage through human resources. A limitation of this study is the dependence on the human resource divisions' perspectives on realising international expansion ambitions in the hotel industry.

This study has implications for companies' engagement with their executives' perceptions of opportunities and threats, and suggests companies will struggle to achieve competitive advantage where such perceptions are consistent with their competitors.

Developments in strategic human resource management have relied on the conceptual and theoretical developments in strategic management, however, an understanding of the impact of strategic groups and their shaping of SHRM has not been previously explored.

The basic concepts of strategic management from the business world are of great value to university administrators in responding to serious threats in their environment. Although there are strong similarities between business and university strategic management, the differences make university strategic management, and particularly the university chief executive′s role in it, much more difficult for the following reasons: (1) the profit motive in business in not present in universities; (2) faculty tenure restricts universities′ freedom to reallocate resources; (3) faculty governance limits the authority of university administrators; (4) universities are more political than business; (5) state university systems impose many constraints on strategic management. Despite these difficulties in implementing these business concepts in universities, strategic management is important for the success or even survival of a university.

This paper highlights cooperation as an important moderating condition of competitive action and response. Drawing on a new perspective of collective identity on competitive dynamics, the purpose of this paper is to stress the impacts of market commonalities and resource similarities on competitive actions and responses and focus on the moderating effect of cooperation on the relationships mentioned above.

This study employs logistic regression analysis to test the hypotheses in the Taiwanese flour industry at the period 2002–2005.

The results indicate market commonalities and resource similarities have a negative effect on the likelihood of a price-competitive action and a price-competitive response. Moreover, the level of cooperation among firms moderates the relationships among market commonalities, resource similarities, price-competitive actions, and price-competitive responses.

To understand and predict competitive behavior help firms to control and avoid unnecessary rivalry and therefore maintain mutual forbearance with competitors.

This study provides a new angle on cooperation-level analysis, contributing the use of collective identity theory to analyze the moderating effects of cooperation on competitive actions and responses.

We examine collaborative complexity arising from strategic alliances among competitors. In high technology industries, rapidly evolving and modular technologies increase the likelihood that collaborative alliances will develop between partners who also compete with one another. Partnering under these conditions involves choosing collaborative structures that foster the transfer and integration of some resources, while simultaneously protecting other resources from unintended transfer. Using resource-based, transaction cost, and industrial organization economic theories we develop a model to depict the risks and rewards of collaboration under different modes of competitive interdependence. Two dimensions underlie our conceptual model: resource interdependence and competitive interdependence. Resource interdependence is the degree of integration needed for the resources contributed by alliance partners as reflected in the nature of the resources and their co-specialization. Competitive interdependence gauges the similarity between partners in their overall strategic capabilities and customer markets. We conclude with a discussion of the contingent use of inter-organizational structures to enable partners to balance resource contributions and resource protection in collaborative-competitive relationships.

The analysis of strategic groups has important implications in marketing in the identification of a firm’s competitive position. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that differences in the performance between the strategic groups within an industry exist. The initial hypothesis is that mobility barriers between the groups mean that their members have a relative advantage over other participants in the sector as far as expenses regarding imitation are concerned. Therefore, differences in profits tend to be maintained on a medium‐ and long‐term basis. However, the majority of empirical studies do not show the differences in the perfomance in a clear way. The methodology used consists of different multivariant statistical techniques. On their application to the Spanish savings banks, a limited support for this relation is obtained for some variables.