How useful is Porter’s theory of competitive strategy 4 understanding the competitive behaviour of companies

Question

Examples? Like Tesco?

Answer 1

Porter developed five forces analysis in 1979, based on Industrial Organization (IO) economics. Besides the five forces, his theory also considers the value chain and the generic strategies. Though still contested, this model is now fairly established and has been incorporated into software models of the marketplace, so it can certainly serve as a useful basis for initial analysis and discussion.

Wikipedia's "Criticism & Extensions" provides grounds for further development on this foundation, citing and briefly summarizing the important work of five other theorists in this area and mentioning the complementary Resource-Based View (RBV).

I would think that, besides Tesco, another good current example to consider would be Wal-Mart. Depending on your personal strategy, you might also want to consider local companies in your own area.