Strategic groups and competitive groups in the UK pharmaceutical industry 1993-2002

摘要

Strategic group research originated in the 1970s and a number of notable studiescentered on the US pharmaceutical industry. Results were however, conflicting. Thisthesis explores the nature of strategic groups and the related concept of competitivegroups in the UK pharmaceutical industry during the period 1993 to 2002. The researchfollows three related themes. The first research theme identifies two stable strategictime periods each of five years duration across the period studied. Within each of thesetime periods strategic groups were identified using a combination of Ward's methodand aK means clustering algorithm and the presence of a relatively stable strategicgroup structure was confirmed. A statistically significant relationship between thesestrategic groups and performance is demonstrated using three performance measures.The second research theme then explores the movement of firms between strategicgroups and finds some support for the proposition that firms moving between strategicgroups move to more advantageousp ositions. The relationship between strategicg roupsand mergers is also investigated and this research finds that mergers between firmsoccur preferentially across strategic groups rather than within strategic groups. Thisrelationship is confirmed as highly statistically significant. Finally in the third researchtheme the relationship between strategic groups, how firms compete and competitivegroups, where firms compete, are investigated. Six different competitive groups areidentified, all but one of which is concentrated around a dominant therapeutic area. Thisfinding suggests that direct competition between firms is reduced by marketsegmentation. A weak relationship was found between competitive groups andperformance but when competitive groups (where firms compete) and strategic groupshow firms compete) are examined in combination a strong statistically significantrelationship with performance was found.