A Contingency View of Porter's “Generic Strategies”

Abstract

According to Porter, cost leadership and product differentiation can be pursued simultaneously only under rare conditions: It is also unclear how these strategies can be implemented. In this article Porter's generic strategies are linked to external preconditions. This approach shows that the generic strategies are not mutually exclusive and that each strategy may be linked to a variety of strategic means. The implications that these results have for structuring organizations are discussed.