Porter's (1980) Generic Strategies and Performance: An Empirical Examination with American Data

Porter's (1980) three generic strategies have received a great deal of attention recently in the literature on strategic management. In this, the first of two papers, we employ methods of taxonomy on the PIMS data base of consumer durable business units to determine whether Porter's differentiation, cost leadership and focus types occur with any degree of regularity. Then, in a sequel paper to appear in O.S. we examine whether the types differ among each other and between types not displaying differentiation or cost leadership in their growth and ROI performance.