A Critical Evaluation of Michael Porter’s Five Forces Framework

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Economic and Social History, grade: 72%, University of Greenwich (Business), course: International Business Environment, language: English, abstract: In times of globalisation strategic decisions like diversification and international expansion become more and more important. As the economic world is developing into an increasingly intertwined network managers need strategic tools to facilitate their decisions. One of these models is the Five Forces model of Michael Porter. He developed this approach in 1980 in his book Competitive Strategy - Techniques for analysing industries and competitors. He claims that any industry has five basic forces that shape the internal competition. This essay will analyse the underlying theories of the model and the its structure itself and apply it to a case study. The case study portraits the Vietnamese textile industry and their association with the government. By analysing the case study this paper will show the models insufficiencies and how it can be improved.