ASSESSING OF COMPETITIVENESS IN A HIGH TECH MARKET
In 1979 Michael Porter published his article «How competitive forces shape strategy» which has gained massive popularity among entrepreneurs and managers for suggesting a holistic framework to analyze the forces driving industry competition. Now, 38 years later, economists suggest that the model became frozen in time, and, is in its original form no more applicable to today’s business context, especially in hi-tech industry. This study finds out that according to recent literatures the five competitive forces model can be partly rejected. Four additional forces are presented in the course of this study to make up for the weaknesses imposed by Porter’s model. These additional forces will be integrated into Porter’s original five forces model and applied to the hi-tech industry to depict the weaknesses of the original model. It states that Porter’s model in its original form provides a very superficial attempt to explain the forces driving industry competition in the 21st century. The readjusted model will allow to step beyond Porter’s model and provide a much clearer view on the decisive forces determining hi-tech industry competition.