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Heterogeneity and Performance

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The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management

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Abstract

A basic premise in the field of business strategy is that close competitors will have different strategies and different levels of success. Yet economic logic suggests that success will attract competitors and imitation; competition should weed out weak performers and competitors should converge on a best way of doing things. Since the 1970s, strategy scholars have reported on within-industry heterogeneity. They described how mobility barriers allowed strategic groups to exist and how isolating mechanisms allowed individual firms unique competitive positions. Since then it has been shown that, despite competition and imitation, close competitors have different strategies, resources, capabilities and preferences, leading to varying levels of economic performance.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. California State University Dominguez Hills, Department of Management, College of Business Administration and Public Policy, Carson, CA, USA

    David G. Hoopes

Authors
  1. David G. Hoopes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David G. Hoopes .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. GSBPP, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, USA

    Mie Augier

  2. Berkeley Research Group, LLC, Emeryville, CA, USA

    David J. Teece

  3. Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    David J. Teece

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© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd., part of Springer Nature

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Hoopes, D.G. (2018). Heterogeneity and Performance. In: Augier, M., Teece, D.J. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-00772-8_419

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