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The importance of identifying competitors and of avoiding “competitive blind spots ” (Zajac and Bazerman 1991) in marketplace has been well emphasized in research and practice (Walker et al. 2005). However, identification of competitors is non-trivial and requires active monitoring of a focal company’s competitive environment. The difficulty in such identification is amplified manifold when there are many more than one focal company of interest (e.g., an analyst exploring the competitive environment of a portfolio containing hundreds of companies) (Ma et al. 2009). Several works have described the difficulties, both from cognitive and procedural standpoint, in identifying competitors. While some have highlighted the role of mental models and taxonomy (Porac and Thomas 1990) in identifying competitive threats, others have highlighted the “managerial myopia ” (Bergen and Peteraf 2002) in recognizing competitors. As the web presence of companies, their clients/consumers, and their suppliers continues to grow, it is increasingly realistic to assume that the real-world competitive relationships are reflected in the text and linkage structure of the relevant pages on the web. However, finding the appropriate webbased cues that effectively signal competitor relationships remains a challenge (Bao et al. 2008, Ma

The authors are listed in reverse alphabetical order. They gratefully acknowledge the support of IRI/Europanel, who provided the data on which this study is based. They thank the participants at the MSI Conference on Competitive Reaction for constructive comments on an earlier draft of this work. Financial support by the Flemish Science Foundation (F.W.O) under grant G.0145.97 and the Research Council of the Catholic University of Leuven under grant OT.96.4 is greatly How do competitors react to each other’s price-promotion and advertising actions? How do these reactions influence the net sales impact we observe? We answer these questions by performing a large-scale empirical study of the short-run and long-run reactions to promotion and advertising shocks in over 400 consumer product categories, over a four-year time span. Competitive reaction can be passive, accommodating or retaliatory. We first develop a series of expectations on the type and intensity of reaction behavior, and on the moderators of this behavior. These expectations are assessed in two ways. First, vector-autoregressive models quantify the short-run and long-run effect of a promotion or advertising action on competitive sales and on competitive reactions. By cataloging the numerical results, we are able to formulate

Much of the business literature on competitive advantage investigates corporate effort at the strategic level and tends to focus on key success factors that sustain advantage. Porter(1980:794), one of the first researchers to explore within-firm dynamics of how advantage is created, used “value chain ” analysis as a tool for inter-functional linkage. Our research contributes to intra-firm

This dissertation investigates the factors that influence the learning of subsidiaries from their local environment and the sequential knowledge outflow from the subsidiaries. Scholars have recognized the ability to learn from diverse local environments as a critical source of competitive advantage for multinational corporations (MNCs). However, the factors influencing the extent to which MNCs learn from local environments in order to develop innovative capabilities have not been well understood. Considering the complexity of institutional environments faced by subsidiaries, this dissertation explores cross-level factors that influence subsidiary learning from diverse local environments. At interface levels, a subsidiary’s local embeddedness and its learning strategy influence the awareness of local strategic knowledge by the subsidiary. At context levels, local market competition and corporate entrepreneurial culture affect the motivation of a subsidiary to learn from diverse local environments. Finally at subsidiary level, top management team heterogeneity impacts the capability of a subsidiary to learn. This dissertation applies both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Multiplecase studies provide rich details, while survey research tests the generalizability of the proposed

The embeddedness of interfirm relationships in the social structure can engender order in new tie formation, but competitive incentives may undermine the order that firms seek to achieve and lead to tie dissolution. We examine how relational embeddedness (history of interactions), positional embeddedness (network centrality), and structural embeddedness (common partners) influence tie stability, focusing on unplanned joint venture dissolution. Prior work suggests that relational embeddedness facilitates alliance stability. This paper finds that positional embeddedness does not promote stability, but structural embeddedness does help sustain alliances, particularly when partners have strong incentives to pursue self-interest at the expense of joint benefits. 2 The network structure that encompasses a firm’s commercial alliances creates both potential strategic benefits and potential risks for collaborative activities. Extant literature shows that the embedding of alliance activity in the pre-existing network structure when selecting partners produces informational, reputational, and social monitoring benefits that help firms mitigate collaboration hazards (Gulati & Gargiulo, 1999; Hitt, Dacin, Levitas, Arregle, & Borza,

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We thank Barbara Deleersnyder and Jan-Benedict Steenkamp for constructive comments on an earlier draft of this work. 1 How To Seize a Window of Opportunity: The Entry Strategy of Retail Firms into Transition Economies In most western countries, grocery retailers are faced with maturing domestic markets with a year-toyear sales growth close to zero. Moreover, most Western-European markets are characterized by a high concentration rate, with a combined market share of the top five players easily exceeding 70%. One important outcome of this evolution has been a growing interest in cross-border initiatives. However, even though the industry gained importance, retailers are still struggling to develop the competencies to compete and survive in this new, more global, arena. In this paper, we study entry investments into Central and Eastern-European transition economies to unveil when, to what extent, and to which retailer the strategic window in these different markets opens. We develop and empirically test a set of hypotheses on factors that affect (1) the speed (timing) and (2) size of retailers ’ decisions to enter Central and Eastern European markets. A

Multimarket (or multipoint) contact has been shown to deter aggressive actions by rivals toward each other, producing a situation of mutual forbearance among firms. To create this deterrent capability, however, firms must enter each others’ markets, which is just the kind of action that the deterrent is supposed to limit. This study explores the questions: Under what conditions are firms likely to behave aggressively toward their multimarket rivals by entering their markets and when will they engage in mutual forbearance? We describe how the effect of multimarket contact on the market-entry moves of a firm changes as the level of contact a firm has with its rivals increases. We draw on competitive intelligence and decision-making theory to argue that the competitive advantages associated with multimarket contact are supplemented

The determinants of strategic alliance performance have not been explored adequately in the literature. Empirical studies abound with numerous kinds of performance measures but, thus far, there is no coherent theoretical basis for the determinants of alliance performance. In this article we present a theoretical framework for understanding alliance performance in terms of its key antecedents. We submit that alliance performance is strongly influenced by particular characteristics of the partner firms as mediated by alliance conditions. We use the term ‘‘partner analysis’ ’ to denote the integrated approach comprising market analysis and resource analysis of partner firms. Alliance conditions are composed of collective strengths, interpartner conflicts, and interdependencies. We discuss the various linkages between the components of partner analysis, alliance conditions, and alliance performance. Finally, we develop a number of propositions to facilitate empirical testing of our partner analysis framework, and indicate its key implications for future research and managerial practice.