The Five Forces are composed of: Risk of Entry by Potential Competitors, The Bargaining Power of Buyers, The Bargaining Power of Suppliers, The Threat of Substitute products, and Rivalry Among Established Companies (Hill & Jones, 2008). Each of these forces in some shape or form has a unique impact within the market segment being analyzed. Porter once said, “Awareness of the five forces can help a company understand the structure of its industry and stake out a position that is more profitable and less vulnerable to attack (Porter, harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu, 2008).
Let us take a closer look at each of these forces and see what negative and positive aspects each one has. The Risk of Entry by Potential Competitors is any industry that may be worried about more competitors entering their market and leeching sales away from their bottom line. If a company has a low risk of new entries this is a very good thing because the company can charge premium pricing since there are not that many suppliers of that product. However, if a company has a high risk of new entries this could be construed as very bad thing because the more sellers you have the more competition which would eventually lower prices to the market average. New competitors can not just enter most established
Cited: Daft, R. L. (2007). Organization Theory and Design. Mason: Thomson South-Western. Hill, C. W., & Jones, G. R. (2008). Strategic Management. Boston: Houghton Mifflin . Porter, M. E. (2008, Janaury). Retrieved January 16, 2008, from harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu: http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?value=BR0801&ml_subscriber=true&ml_action=get-article&ml_issueid=BR0801&articleID=R0801E&pageNumber=1 Porter, M. E. (1980). Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. New York: Free Press.