Strategic groups as subsets of strategic scope groups in the Belgian brewing industry

✍ Scribed by Noël Houthoofd; Aimé Heene

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 118 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0143-2095
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(199709)18:8<653::aid-smj910>3.0.co;2-e

✦ Synopsis

This research report proposes a distinction between strategic scope groups and strategic groups whereby strategic groups are delineated within strategic scope groups. A strategic scope group (SSG) includes firms within an industry that define their business using a four-dimensional 'strategic space' consisting of buyer types, product types, geographical reach and level of vertical integration, in a similar way. Within each SSG there may be several strategic groups (SGs). An SG includes firms within an SSG that deploy their resources in a similar way and that compete in the same way. While all firms within an SSG may compete against each other, firms within the same SG compete against each other in a similar way. Within the brewing industry in Belgium five SSGs could be identified. These SSGs differ statistically significantly on a risk-adjusted return on assets measure. SGs themselves did not differ on this performance measure. One may therefore conclude that mobility barriers between SSGs are higher than they are between SGs.