Strategic Management Glossary

A performance management framework measuring strategy execution across financial, customer, internal process, and learning perspectives.

Obstacles that make it difficult for new competitors to enter an industry, such as capital requirements, economies of scale, and brand loyalty.

A portfolio management tool classifying business units by market growth rate and relative market share into Stars, Cash Cows, Question Marks, and Dogs.

A strategic approach focused on creating uncontested market space through value innovation rather than competing in existing markets.

A set of qualities or conditions that allow a firm to generate greater value for customers or operate at lower cost than its rivals.

A unique combination of skills, knowledge, and technology that provides a firm with a distinctive advantage and access to diverse markets.

The system of rules, practices, and processes by which a company is directed and controlled, balancing the interests of stakeholders.

A generic strategy in which a firm aims to become the lowest-cost producer in its industry to achieve above-average profitability.

A strategy that seeks to offer unique products or services that command premium prices through features, quality, branding, or customer experience.

A growth strategy involving expansion into new products or markets, either related (sharing resources) or unrelated (conglomerate).

A firm's ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure competencies to address rapidly changing environments.

Cost advantages that arise when increased production volume leads to lower per-unit costs through spreading fixed costs over more output.

Benefits gained by the initial significant occupant of a market segment, including brand recognition, customer loyalty, and resource control.

A strategy of acquiring or merging with competitors at the same stage of the value chain to increase market share and reduce rivalry.

A formal declaration of an organization's core purpose, defining what it does, whom it serves, and how it creates value.

A framework for analyzing macro-environmental factors: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal.

An industry analysis framework examining competitive rivalry, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, buyer power, and supplier power.

A theoretical perspective holding that sustainable competitive advantage derives from valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable resources.

A strategic planning method that constructs multiple plausible future scenarios to test strategy robustness under uncertainty.

Any individual or group that can affect or is affected by an organization's actions, decisions, policies, and goals.

A cooperative agreement between firms to share resources and capabilities for mutual benefit while remaining independent entities.

A gradual divergence between an organization's strategy and the realities of its external environment, often leading to crisis.

A strategic planning tool that evaluates internal Strengths and Weaknesses alongside external Opportunities and Threats.

The full range of primary and support activities a firm performs to design, produce, market, deliver, and support its product.

A strategy where a firm controls multiple stages of its supply chain, either upstream (backward) toward suppliers or downstream (forward) toward customers.