Managerial identification of competitors:accuracy and perfomance consequences / Bruce H Clark

Previous research has examined what drives managerial identification of competitors and how well managers' perceived overall market structures match customer market structures. This research tests the proposition that the degree to which a manager accurately identifies competitors to his or her firm should improve firm performance. It examines this relationship in a longitudinal study of an emerging high-technology industry. Accuracy was associated with superior performance, but only when managers exhibited a detailed knowledge of the competition facing the firm. Accuracy in turn was negatively associated with the manager's industry experience. A firm's overall business experience demonstrated an inverted-U relationship with accuracy. Whether the firm's product had been certified by a third-party endorser in the industry was broadly related to accuracy, but overall had little relationship with performance