God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference. (Serenity Prayer, Reinhold Niebuhr)
Industry Structure Analysis
Industry Evolution
- Fragmented - new industries form and grow with a variety of smaller firms who compete on various differientiating propositions. Over time, weaker competitors either go out of business or get purchased by better performing competitors. Eventually, most industries move on to the second form:
- Consolidated - the merger or acquisition of many smaller companies into a few much larger ones (Wikipedia).
International Industry Types
- Multidomestic Companies - is a strategy by which companies try to achieve maximum local responsiveness by customizing both their product offering and marketing strategy to match different national conditions. Production, marketing, and R&D activities tend to be established in each major national market where business is done. An alternate use of the term describes the organization of multi-national firms. International or multinational companies gain economies of scale through shared overhead, and market similar products in multiple countries. Multi-domestic companies have separate headquarters in different countries, thereby attaining more localized management, but at the higher cost of forgoing the economies of scale from cost sharing and centralization (Wikipedia).
- Global (multi-national) companies - A multinational corporation (MNC) is usually a large corporation incorporated in one country which produces or sells goods or services in various countries. The two main characteristics of MNCs are their large size and the fact that their worldwide activities are centrally controlled by the parent companies (Wikipedia).
