The conclusions of this study are derived from an ongoing, multiyear project to map competitive pressure systems in several industries, including U.S. airlines, European Internet service providers (ISPs), European mobile telephony, U.S. automakers, the mutual fund industry, and the global entertainment and media industries. Earlier data on U.S. airlines were from a published study by Ming-Jer Chen, the E. Thayer Bigelow Research Professor of Business Administration at the Darden School of the University of Virginia.* The 1995 airline data were collected from the same public data sources used by Chen as well as market share data by airport from securities analyst reports. European mobile telephony and ISP data were collected, analyzed and published with the assistance and permission of the Nolan Norton Institute of KPMG Management Consulting-Netherlands and Prof. Hans Strikwerda of the University of Amsterdam. Research on other industries continues at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business under the direction of the author, with the goal of gaining further understanding about how pressure systems differ from industry to industry, how they evolve over time, and how they influence and incorporate mixtures of competitive and cooperative behaviors among rivals.

* M. Chen, “Competitor Analysis and Interfirm Rivalry: Toward a Theoretical Integration,” Academy of Management Review 21, no. 10 (1996):