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Porters Diamond
In 1990 Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School published the result of an
intensive research effort that attempted to determine why some nations succeed and
others fail in international competition. Porter and his team looked at 100 industries in
10 nations.
Like the work of the new trade theorist, Porters work was driven by a belief that
existing theories of international trade told only the part of story. For Porter, the
essential task was to explain why a nation achieves international success in in a
particular industry. Why does Japan do so well in the automobile industry? Why does
Switzerland excel in the production and export of precision instruments and
pharmaceuticals? Why do Germany and the United States do so well in the chemical
industry? These questions cannot be answered easily by the Heckscher-Ohlin theory,
and the theory of comparative advantage offers only a partial explanation.
The theory of comparative advantage would say that Switzerland excel in the
production and export of precision instruments because it uses its resources very
productively in these industries. Although this may be correct, it does not explain why
Switzerland is more productive in this industry than Great Britain, Germany, or Spain.
Porter tries to solve this puzzle.
Porter theorizes that four board attributes of a nation shape the environment in which
local firms compete, and these attributes promote or impede the creation of
competitive advantage.
NC Advantage:
These four attributes constitute Porters diamond. Porter argues that firms are mostly
likely to succeed in industries or industry segments where the diamond is most
Notes
International Business Finance
favorable. He also argues that the diamond is a mutually reinforcing system; the effort
of one attribute is contingent on the state of others. For example, Porter argues that
favorable demand conditions will not result in competitive advantage unless the state
of rivalry is sufficient to cause firms to respond to them.
Factor Endowments:
Factor endowment lie at the center of the Heckscher- Ohlin theory. While Porter does
not propose radically new, he does analyze the characteristics of factors of
production. He recognizes hierarchies among factors, distinguishing between basic
factors (e.g., natural resources, climate, location, and demographics) and advance
factors (e.g., communication infrastructure, sophisticated and skilled labor, research
facilities, and technological know-how.
Demand Conditions:
Porter emphasizes the role home demand plays in upgrading competitive advantage.
Firms are typically most sensitive to the need of their closet customer. Thus, the
characteristics of home demand are particularly important in shaping the attributes of
domestically made products and in creating pressures for innovation and quality.
Porter argues that a nations firms gain competitive advantage if their domestic
consumers are sophisticated and demanding. Such consumers pressure local firms to
meet standard of product quality and to produce innovation products.
Technological leadership in the U.S. semiconductor industry provided the basis for U.S.
success in personal computers and several other technically advanced electronic
products. Similarly, Switzerlands success in pharmaceutical is closely related to its
previous internationally success in the technologically related dye industry. If a
company works in country and other company also try to target that market, your
company will take competitive advantage in shapely producing high quality products,
because you focus is quality.