Despite extensive academic research on how to identify competitors objectively, marketers know relatively little about how managers identify competitors in practice. The authors bring together diffuse literature in this area and propose a cognitive framework for managerial identification of competitors. They report the results of two studies that examine the attributes managers use in deciding who their competitors are.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AakerDavid A. (1995), Strategic Market Management, 4th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
2.
AlbaJoseph W. and HutchinsonJ. Wesley (1987), “Dimensions of Consumer Expertise,” Journal of Consumer Research, 13 (March), 411–54.
3.
BarsalouLawrence W. (1992), Cognitive Psychology: An Overview for Cognitive Scientists.Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
4.
BeardDonald N. and DessGregory G. (1981), “Corporate-Level Strategy, Business-Level Strategy, and Firm Performance,” Academy of Management Journal, 24 (December), 663–88.
5.
CaponNoel, FarleyJohn U., and HoenigScott (1990), “Determinants of Financial Performance: A Meta-Analysis,” Management Science, 36 (October), 1143–59.
6.
ChenMing-Jer and HambrickDonald C. (1995), “Speed, Stealth and Selective Attack: How Small Firms Differ from Large Firms in Competitive Behavior,” Academy of Management Journal, 38 (April), 453–82.
7.
ChenMing-Jer and MillerDanny (1994), “Competitive Attack, Retaliation and Performance: An Expectancy–Valence Framework,” Strategic Management Journal, 15 (2), 85–102.
8.
ClarkBruce H. and MontgomeryDavid B. (1996), “Perceiving Competitive Reactions: The Value of Accuracy (and Paranoia),” Marketing Letters, 7 (March), 115–29.
9.
ClarkBruce H. and MontgomeryDavid B. (1998), “Deterrence, Reputations and Competitive Cognition,” Management Science, 44 (January), 62–82.
10.
CohenJoel B. and BasuKunal (1987), “Alternative Models of Categorization: Toward a Contingent Processing Framework,” Journal of Consumer Research, 13 (March), 455–72.
11.
CooperLee G. and InoueAkihiro (1996), “Building Market Structures from Consumer Preferences,” Journal of Marketing Research, 33 (August), 293–306.
12.
CurrenMary T., FolkesValerie S., and SteckelJoel H. (1992), “Explanations for Successful and Unsuccessful Marketing Decisions: The Decision Maker's Perspective,” Journal of Marketing, 56 (April), 18–31.
13.
CzepielJohn A. (1992), Competitive Marketing Strategy.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
14.
DayGeorge S. (1990), Market Driven Strategy: Processes for Creating Value.New York: The Free Press.
15.
DayGeorge S. (1997), “Assessing Competitive Arenas: Who Are Your Competitors?” in Wharton on Dynamic Competitive Strategy, DayG.S. and ReibsteinD.J., eds. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 23–47.
16.
DayGeorge S., ShockerAllen D., and SrivastavaRajendra K. (1979), “Consumer-Oriented Approaches to Identifying Product Markets,” Journal of Marketing, 43 (Fall), 8–19.
17.
de ChernatonyLeslie, DanielsKevin, and JohnsonGerry (1993), “A Cognitive Perspective on Managers’ Perceptions of Competition,” Journal of Marketing Management, 9 (4), 373–81.
18.
de ChernatonyLeslie, DanielsKevin, and JohnsonGerry (1994), “Competitive Positioning Strategies: Mirroring Sellers’ and Buyers’ Perceptions,” Journal of Strategic Marketing, 2 (September), 229–47.
19.
DeshpandéRohit, FarleyJohn U., and WebsterFrederick E.Jr. (1993), “Corporate Culture, Customer Orientation, and Innovativeness in Japanese Firms: A Quadrad Analysis,” Journal of Marketing, 57 (January), 23–37.
20.
FiskeSusan T. and TaylorShelley E. (1991), Social Cognition, 2d ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
21.
GatignonHubert (1987), “Strategic Studies in Markstrat,” Journal of Business Research, 15 (December), 469–80.
22.
GoodingRichard Z. and WagnerJohn A.III (1985), “A Meta-Analytic Review of the Relationship Between Size and Performance: The Productivity and Efficiency of Organizations and Their Subunits,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 30 (December), 462–81.
23.
GlazerRashi, SteckelJoel H., and WinerRussell S. (1989), “The Formation of Key Marketing Variable Expectations and Their Impact on Firm Performance: Some Experimental Evidence,” Marketing Science, 8 (Winter), 18–34.
24.
GlazerRashi, SteckelJoel H., and WinerRussell S. (1992), “Locally Rational Decision Making: The Distracting Effect of Information on Managerial Performance,” Management Science, 38 (February), 212–26.
25.
GreenbergJerald (1987), “The College Sophomore as Guinea Pig: Setting the Record Straight,” Academy of Management Review, 12 (1), 157–59.
26.
GreeneWilliam H. (1990), Econometric Analysis.New York: Macmillan.
27.
GreveHenrich R. (1998), “Performance, Aspirations, and Risky Organizational Change,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 43 (March), 58–86.
28.
GripsrudGeir and GronhaugKjell (1985), “Structure and Strategy in Grocery Retailing: A Sociometric Approach,” Journal of Industrial Economics, 33 (March), 339–47.
29.
HauserJohn R. and WernerfeltBirger (1990), “An Evaluation Cost Model of Consideration Sets,” Journal of Consumer Research, 16 (March), 393–408.
30.
HeilOliver and RobertsonThomas S. (1991), “Toward a Theory of Competitive Market Signaling: A Research Agenda,” Strategic Management Journal, 12 (6), 403–18.
31.
HeilOliver and WaltersRockney G. (1993), “Explaining Competitive Reactions to New Products: An Empirical Signaling Study,” Journal of Product Innovation Management, 10 (1), 53–65.
32.
HigginsE. Tory and StangorCharles (1988), “Context-Driven Social Judgment and Memory: When ‘Behavior Engulfs the Field’ in Reconstructive Memory,” in The Social Psychology of Knowledge, Bar-TalD. and KruglanskiA.W., eds. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 262–98.
33.
HodgkinsonGerard P. (1997), “Cognitive Inertia in a Turbulent Market: The Case of UK Residential Estate Agents,” Journal of Management Studies, 34 (November), 921–45.
34.
HodgkinsonGerard P. and JohnsonGerry (1994), “Exploring the Mental Models of Competitive Strategists: The Case for a Processual Approach,” Journal of Management Studies, 31 (July), 525–51.
35.
HogarthRobyn M. and MakridakisSpyros (1981), “The Value of Decision Making in a Complex Environment: An Experimental Approach,” Management Science, 27 (January), 93–107.
36.
HutchinsonJ. Wesley and AlbaJoseph W. (1991), “Ignoring Irrelevant Information: Situational Determinants of Consumer Learning,” Journal of Consumer Research, 18 (December), 325–45.
37.
KeatsBarbara W. and HittMichael A. (1988), “A Causal Model of Linkages Among Environmental Dimensions, Macro Organizational Characteristics, and Performance,” Academy of Management Journal, 31 (3), 570–98.
38.
LantTheresa K. and MontgomeryDavid B. (1987), “Learning from Strategic Success and Failure,” Journal of Business Research, 15 (6), 503–17.
39.
LarrecheJean-Claude and GatignonHubert (1990), Markstrat 2: Instructor's Manual.Redwood City, CA: The Scientific Press.
40.
LevittTheodore (1960), “Marketing Myopia,” Harvard Business Review, 38 (July/August), 45–56.
41.
LewisPam and ThomasHoward (1990), “The Linkage Between Strategy, Strategic Groups, and Performance in the U.K. Retail Grocery Industry,” Strategic Management Journal, 11 (September), 385–97.
42.
LynchJohn G.Jr. and SrullThomas K. (1982), “Memory and Attentional Factors in Consumer Choice: Concepts and Research Methods,” Journal of Consumer Research, 9 (June), 18–37.
43.
McGeeJohn and ThomasHoward (1992), “Strategic Groups and Intra-Industry Competition,” in International Review of Strategic Management, HusseyD.E., ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 77–98.
44.
McKeeDarryl O., VaradarajanP. Rajan, and VassarJohn (1990), “A Taxonomy of Marketing Planning Styles,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 18 (Spring), 131–41.
45.
MillerDanny (1994), “What Happens After Success: The Perils of Excellence,” Journal of Management Studies, 31 (May), 325–58.
46.
MillerGeorge A. (1956), “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information,” Psychological Review, 63 (2), 81–97.
47.
MooreMarian Chapman (1992), “Signals and Choices in a Competitive Interaction: The Role of Moves and Messages,” Management Science, 18 (April), 483–500.
48.
NarayanaChem L. and MarkinRom J. (1975), “Consumer Behavior and Product Performance: An Alternative Conceptualization,” Journal of Marketing, 39 (October), 1–6.
49.
PerraultWilliam D. and LeighLaurence E. (1989), “Reliability of Nominal Data Based on Qualitative Judgments,” Journal of Marketing Research, 26 (May), 135–48.
50.
PeterJ. Paul, ChurchillGilbert A.Jr., and BrownTom J. (1993), “Caution in the Use of Difference Scores in Consumer Research,” Journal of Consumer Research, 19 (March), 655–62.
51.
PoracJoseph F. and ThomasHoward (1990), “Taxonomic Mental Models of Competitor Definition,” Academy of Management Review, 15 (2), 224–40.
52.
PoracJoseph F. and ThomasHoward (1994), “Cognitive Categorization and Subjective Rivalry Among Retailers in a Small City,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 79 (1), 54–66.
53.
PoracJoseph F., ThomasHoward and Baden–FullerCharles (1989), “Competitive Groups as Cognitive Communities: The Case of Scottish Knitwear Manufacturers,” Journal of Management Studies, 26 (July), 397–416.
54.
PoracJoseph F., ThomasHoward, WilsonFiona, PatonDouglas, and KanferAlaina (1995), “Rivalry and the Industry Model of Scottish Knitwear Producers,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 40 (2), 203–27.
55.
PorterMichael E. (1979), “The Structure Within Industries and Companies’ Performance,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 61 (2), 214–27.
56.
RegerRhonda K. and PalmerTimothy B. (1996), “Managerial Categorization of Competitors: Using Old Maps to Navigate New Environments,” Organization Science, 7 (January-February), 22–39.
57.
RobertsonThomas S., EliashbergJehoshua, and RymonTalia (1995), “New Product Announcement Signals and Incumbent Reactions,” Journal of Marketing, 59 (July), 1–15.
58.
RossLee (1977), “The Intuitive Psychologist and His Shortcomings: Distortions in the Attribution Process,” in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, BerkowitzL., ed. New York: Academic Press, 174–221.
SharmaSubhash (1996), Applied Multivariate Techniques.New York: John Wiley & Sons.
61.
ShermanSteven J., JuddCharles M., and ParkBernadette (1989), “Social Cognition,” Annual Review of Psychology, 40, 281–326.
62.
SlywotzkyAdrian J. (1996), Value Migration.Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
63.
SoniPraveen K., LilienGary L., and WilsonDavid T. (1993), “Industrial Innovation and Firm Performance: A Re-conceptualization and Exploratory Structural Equation Analysis,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 10 (December), 365–80.
SujanHarish, SujanMita, and BettmanJames R. (1988), “Knowledge Structure Differences Between More Effective and Less Effective Salespeople,” Journal of Marketing Research, 25 (February), 81–96.
66.
ThomasHoward and VenkatramanN. (1988), “Research on Strategic Groups: Progress and Prognosis,” Journal of Management Studies, 25 (6), 537–55.
67.
TuckerFrancis Gaither, ZivanSeymour M., and CampRobert C. (1987), “How to Measure Yourself Against the Best,” Harvard Business Review, 65 (January/February), 8–10.
68.
WaltonEric J. (1986), “Managers’ Prototypes of Financial Firms,” Journal of Management Studies, 23 (May), 680–98.
69.
WyerRobert S.Jr. and SrullThomas K. (1989), Memory and Cognition in its Social Context.Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
