Minding your distance: how management consulting firms use service marks to position competitively

Matthew Semadeni

70 citations0/0 files storedStrategic Management Journal

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Management and Organizational Studies Marketing and Advertising Strategies Innovation and Knowledge Management

Abstract

Abstract This research examines the dyadic dynamics of positioning (i.e., determining where to locate relative to rivals) of services by consulting firms. Positioning near to or far from competitors offers both advantages and disadvantages in terms of competition, legitimacy, uncertainty, and spillovers, with recent research suggesting that firms seek balance between these various forces. Using a sample of service mark filings by consulting firms, I examine the effects of similarity, age, size, and prospective services on service positioning. Results indicate that positioning is both dyadic and multidimensional in nature, with firms maximizing the advantages of positioning either near or far, while minimizing the disadvantages. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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References

1991Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage 1983The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields 2004Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage 1977Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony 2004The iron cage revisited institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields 1983An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change.1995Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches 1978Specification Tests in Econometrics

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