The structure of competition

This thesis examines the structural patterns of interfirm competitive relationships using network analysis -a set of methods originally developed for analyzing the structure of social ties. The author views each firm in a multimarket space as facing a "competitive network", which consists of all market competitors of the ego firm and all competitive relationships associated with these competitors. Each competitive network has a structure, delineating how a firm's competitors interact with the ego firm, with one another, and with other market actors whom the ego firm does not directly encounter. The author develops and tests a new theory on competitive network structures, showing that a firm's conducts and performance are dependent upon the structure of its competitive network