FREE online courses on Competitive Strategies - Traditional Approaches to
Competitive Strategies - Abells Business Definition Framework
Abell's business definition framework
proposes that a business can be defined by using three dimensions: customer
groups (who we're going to serve),
customer needs (what customer need
we're attempting to meet), and technology or distinctive competencies (how we're going to meet that need). This
approach strongly stresses understanding customers and not on an industry and
its products or services. Based on these three dimensions, Abell's competitive
strategy classification scheme proposed that a business could be defined by its
competitive scope (broad or narrow) and by the extent of competitive
differentiation of its product/service offerings.
Abell's strict marketing emphasis limits his
business definition framework as a widely used and general approach to
describing organizations' competitive strategies. But it did provide clues to
two important aspects of competitive strategy: competitive scope and level of
product differentiation.
