1. Why is it important for an organization to study and understand its external environment?
2. How do the five competitive forces in Porter's model affect the profitability of the overall industry? For example, in what way might weak forces increase industry profits, and in what way do strong forces reduce industry profits?
3. What is a strategic group? How can studying such groups be useful in industry analysis?
4. How do mobility barriers affect the structure of an industry? How do they help us explain firm differences in performance?