国外营销论文97Rumelt_1991_SMJ.pdf

Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 12, 167-185 (1991) HOW MUCHDOES INDUSTRYMATTER? RICHARDP. RUMELT Anderson Graduate School of Management, University of California,Los Angeles, California,U.S.A. This study partitions the total variance in rate of return among FTC Line of Business reporting units into industryfactors (whatever their nature), time factors, factors associated with the corporate parent, and business-specific factors. Whereas Schmalensee (1985) reported that industry factors were the stronlgest,corporate and market share effects being extremely weak, this study distinguishes between stable and fluctuating effects and reaches markedly different conclusions. The data reveal negligible corporate effects, small stable indlustryeffects, and very large stable business-unit effects. These results imlplythat the most itnportant sources of economic rents are businiess-specific;industry membership is a much less itmportantsource and corporate parentage is quite unimportant. Because competition acts to direct resources the total variance of rates of return on assets in towards uses offering the highest returns, persist- the 1975 LB data into industry, corporate, and ently unequal returns mark the presence of either market-share components. He reported that: (1) natural or contrived impediments to resource corporate effects did not exist; (2) market-share flows. The study of such impediments is a effects accounted for a negligib