On Competition, Updated & Expanded Edition by Michael E. Porter

From the Publisher

For the past two decades, Michael Porter's work has towered over the field of competitive strategy. On Competition, Updated and Expanded Edition brings together more than a dozen of Porter's landmark articles from the Harvard Business Review. Five are new to this edition, including the 2008 update to his classic "The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy," as well as new work on health care, philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, and CEO leadership.

This collection captures Porter's unique ability to bridge theory and practice. Each of the articles has not only shaped thinking, but also redefined the work of practitioners in its respective field. In an insightful new introduction, Porter relates each article to the whole of his thinking about competition and value creation, and traces how that thinking has deepened over time.

This collection is organized by topic, allowing the reader easy access to the wide range of Porter's work. Parts I and II present the frameworks for which Porter is best known—frameworks that address how companies, as well as nations and regions, gain and sustain competitive advantage. Part III shows how strategic thinking can address society's most pressing challenges, from environmental sustainability to improving health-care delivery. Part IV explores how both nonprofits and corporations can create value for society more effectively by applying strategy principles to philanthropy. Part V explores the link between strategy and leadership.

Library Journal

Porter (The Competitive Advantage of Nations, LJ 6/1/90), a professor at the Harvard Business School and premier investigator of corporate strategy, has collected ten previously published articles from the Harvard Business Review together with two new pieces on competition and competitive strategy. The essays are grouped into three categories: core concepts, location as a competitive advantage, and the competitive solutions to societal problems. While most of the book has a timeless quality, listing an essay's date of publication more prominently and perhaps including a postscript would have helped readers judge a strategy's success by giving it an appropriate context. For example, while its lesson is still valid, the essay "End-Game Strategies for Declining Industries" will perplex readers because it includes a discussion of the manufacture of cigars, now much in vogue. In the final analysis, though, this trenchant book will become a textbook for corporate strategy. Recommended for special collections.--Steven Silkunas, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Philadelphia

Booknews

Porter (business administration, Harvard Business School) collates 11 of his and coauthors' seminal articles on competitiveness in the private and public sectors from The Harvard Business Review and two new ones (one on clusters on the national front; the other on global strategy). Organized in three parts around core concepts, the role of location in competition, and competitive solutions to societal problems, the author (Competitive Strategy, Competitive Advantage and The Competitive Advantage of Nations) presents the evolution of his ideas in bridging economic theory and management practice. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents