Mental Models of Competitive Space and their Correlates

Abstract

As noted in Chapter 1, this study was conceived primarily to gather data that would enable a rigorous empirical examination of a number of the central claims of the emerging body of socio-cognitive theory concerning the evolution of competitive structures in industries and markets, centred on Porac et al.’s (1989) embryonic notion of competitive enactment. The next three chapters present the substantive findings arising from the study. In Chapter 2 we identified three issues in particular that remain of enduring concern, notwithstanding the theoretical developments that have occurred over the ensuing years, namely, the extent to which key features of actors’ mental models of competitive space correlate in theoretically meaningful ways with strategic behaviours and outcomes, the extent to which these mental models converge or diverge within and between organizations in the same industrial sector, and the extent to which they remain stable over time, notwithstanding significant environmental jolts. In the next three chapters we shall address each of these issues in turn.