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Hofel and Schendel, 1978

Charles Hofer and Dan Schendel (1978) argued the assessment of competitive position involves identifying the key success factors for an industry. They note "Key success factors are those variables which management can influence through its decisions that can affect significantly the overall competitive positions of the various firms in an industry. These factors usually vary from industry to industry (p. 77)." Examples of key success factors include: market share, breadth of product lines, sales distribution effectiveness, relative product quality, productivity, price competitiveness, caliber of personnel and general image.

from Hofer, C. W. and D. Schendel, Strategy Formulation: Analytical Concepts, St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co., 1978.

appeared in DSS News, September 1, 2002, Vol. 3, No. 18