Extending Porter's generic strategies: from three to eight

Abstract

Porter’s generic strategies have been well received in the field of strategic management. However, this does not mean that the generic strategy concept itself is without criticism. Porter himself was not satisfied with his original generic strategies; he therefore introduced three additional strategies, i.e. variety-based, needs-based and access-based strategies. However, the relationship between Porter’s original models and the new model is not clear. This paper clarifies this problem and integrates the different models into a new framework of eight strategies, by adding one more criterion, competitive target. The new framework of this paper may look a little complicated, but it is in fact more simplified than the three different models suggested by Porter. The real benefit of this new model is that it can explain the real-world cases better than the original Porter frameworks. This paper then introduces two new concepts, capturing the core and broadening without diluting, which are useful in reconciling some conflicting issues on the ‘stuck-in-the-middle vs. mixed strategy’ debate. A set of case studies of the automobile industry are conducted to support the new framework and concepts proposed in this paper.