Strategic Management Concepts for Antitrust: Cooperation,Stakeholders and Sustainability

Abstract

Now that the rule of reason has largely over taken per se rules of antitrust law in the United States, antitrust enforcement generally requires evaluation of a wide variety of evidence to determine the challenged conduct's effect on competition. This article provides an overview of three concepts commonly taught in MBA-level strategic management courses to evaluate much of the same evidence for purposes of determining the firm's competitive strategy: cooperative strategies, stakeholder management, and sustainable business practices. Unlike the neoclassical microeconomic view of competition commonly used in modern antitrust analysis, strategic management teaches students to view competitors not only as rivals, but also as stakeholders with whom their firms may need to cooperate. While the application of these concepts to specific antitrust issues requires further analysis, these concepts provide a basis for supplementing the understanding of business competition under the rule of reason.