Categories: Strategic Management

Strategic Group Mapping of Retail Chains

&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad1" id&equals;"quads-ad1" style&equals;"float&colon;left&semi;margin&colon;0px 0px 0px 0&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&NewLine;Strategic Group Mapping is analytical tool used for showing the different market or competitive positions that rival firm occupy in the industry&period; It is very important to analyze the industry&&num;8217&semi;s competitive structure and indentify the strategic groups &lpar;strategic group is a set of business units or firms that pursue similar strategies with similar resources&rpar;&period; Each industry contains one or more than one strategic group depending upon the strategies and market positions of industry members&period;&&num;160&semi;&&num;160&semi; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>&&num;160&semi;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<h3>Purpose of Strategic Group Maps <&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p> &&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ol>&NewLine;<li>&NewLine;<div align&equals;"justify">Identification of close and distant rivals&period; This is important to know because close strategic groups have stronger cross-group competitive rivalry&period; <&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>&NewLine;<div align&equals;"justify">Identification of attractive and unattractive positions of the firms in industry&period; This attractiveness depends upon the industry driving forces&comma; prevailing competitive pressures and profit potentials of different strategic groups&period; <&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>&NewLine;<div align&equals;"justify">Strategic group mapping helps in identifying the strategic group a firm should consider entering&period; <&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>&NewLine;<div align&equals;"justify">It helps in analyzing the type and level of entry barriers the firm will face&period;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>&NewLine;<div align&equals;"justify">It also examines the number and type of entry barriers the firm will face&period; <&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<h3>&&num;160&semi;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<h3>&&num;160&semi;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<h3>Guidelines for Constructing Strategic Group Maps<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<h3>&&num;160&semi;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<h3>&NewLine;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<ol>&NewLine;<li>There should be no correlation between the variables selected as axes for the map&period; <&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>There should be a big difference between the variables selected&period; This will help to easily identify the rival&&num;8217&semi;s position in the market place&period; <&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>The variables selected should be discrete rather than quantitative or continuous&period; <&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>A relative size of each strategic group depends upon the combined sales of the firms in each strategic group&period; <&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Different competitive variables should be used as axes for the map because there is not necessarily one best map&period; <&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<h3>&&num;160&semi;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<h3>&&num;160&semi;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<h3>Steps in the Construction of Strategic Group Maps<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p> &&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ol>&NewLine;<li>&NewLine;<div align&equals;"justify">Analyzing the overall industry and indentifying those competitive characteristics that differentiate firms in the industry&period; Variables selected as axes for the map could be identified during the process of industry analysis&period;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>&NewLine;<div align&equals;"justify">Variables selected as axes for the map could be product-line breadth &lpar;wide&comma; narrow&rpar;&comma; price &lpar;high&comma; medium&comma; low&rpar;&comma; quality &lpar;high&comma; medium&comma; low&rpar;&comma; geographic coverage &lpar;local&comma; regional&comma; national&comma; global&rpar; etc&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Using two-variable map&comma; plot all the firms in the industry&period; For example price &lpar;high&comma; medium&comma; low&rpar; can be taken on x axis whereas product-line breadth &lpar;wide&comma; narrow&rpar; on y axis and all the firms can be plotted accordingly&period; <&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>&NewLine;<div align&equals;"justify">All the firms that fall in the same strategy space should be allocated to the same strategic group&period;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>&NewLine;<div align&equals;"justify">Finally&comma; sketch circles around each strategic group&period; The size of the circles depends upon the share of a strategic group in the total industry sales revenue&period; <&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"center"><strong><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"center"><strong>Group Mapping of Retail Chains<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;mba-lectures&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2010&sol;10&sol;image15&period;png"><img style&equals;"border-right-width&colon; 0px&semi; display&colon; block&semi; float&colon; none&semi; border-top-width&colon; 0px&semi; border-bottom-width&colon; 0px&semi; margin-left&colon; auto&semi; border-left-width&colon; 0px&semi; margin-right&colon; auto" title&equals;"image" border&equals;"0" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;mba-lectures&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2010&sol;10&sol;image&lowbar;thumb15&period;png" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"344" &sol;><&sol;a> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad2" id&equals;"quads-ad2" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px 0 0px 0&semi;text-align&colon;center&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad3" id&equals;"quads-ad3" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;

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