i am divikiran,, i am a student of ERP recently i have started my research on Michael Porter’s work. can any buddy guide me to get best material to read which can explain me right from the beginning and with all his mechanism.

thinking you
Divikiran Ravela

I agree when you say that “Porter’s theory has been disproved time and again”, but you have to be careful about what theories you talk about, since Porter had many of them.

If you consider his theory about strategy formulation for instance, he defended that stratigic planning must be carried before entering a certain industry and it must be based on analysis and models. Henry Mintzberg proved that this method is very innefective in many industries, creating a new school of thought.

That said, Porter’s theory about competitive advantage is one of his most solid theories (in fact by your comment it is not clear to me what is your criticism about that theory). Appart from cost advanatge and differentiation advantage he also added a third via called “focus” strategy when companies have an advantage by service niche markets. Now, can you name a couple of sources of competitive advantage that do no fall inside one of those 3 categories?

While Porter’s work is revolutionary, it doesn’t completely explain competitive advantage and competitive factors. remember Porter’s theory has been disproved time and again, in various industries and contexts, more in the high tech world.

Porter (with all due respects to him) saw this primarily from an economics standpoint, and hence his view is limiting.