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Strategic management is constantly evolving as both an academic discipline and as a reflection of management practice. This article, based on a recent interview with Michael Porter, assesses his contribution to the development of the discipline in the context of the advances that have taken place since the publication of his seminal work Competitive Strategy in 1980. The authors conclude that Porter has made major lasting contributions to strategy, increasing both its academic rigor and its accessibility to managers. The article and interview place Porter's work at the center of the development of strategic management in terms of the provision of practical analytical frameworks, transforming it into a recognized and recognizable field of academic study and management practice. This feat of transformation has not been equaled before or since, so that 25 years after his first seminal contribution, Porter's work continues to provide remarkable insights into the nature of competition and strategy.
Keywords: strategy; strategic management; competition; competitiveness; strategizing
Professor Michael Porter is among the founding fathers of strategic management as a recognized academic discipline. He has provided strategy with a rigorous theoretical base but, equally as important, he has made the discipline accessible and useful to practicing managers. His contributions, as an economist, to the investigation of "competitiveness" at the level of the firm, industry, and nation over the past 30 years have been fundamental to the development of both the theory and practice of strategy and strategiz-ing. Professor Porter has authored/coauthored/ edited 17 books and more than 100 academic articles. He has acted as a consultant to many of the world's leading business organizations and governments, as well as publishing a large number of articles in the popular business press. Professor Porter is consequently regarded as one of the world's leading authorities on competitive strategy in business organizations, the competitiveness of nations and regions, and more recently, the application of competitive analysis to social and environmental aspects of business activity (Snowdon & Stonehouse, 2006).
Currently, Michael Porter is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School and he is only the fourth faculty member from Harvard Business School to be awarded the distinction of a university professorship. In its recent assessment of the world's 50 most influential thinkers, Accenture's...