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CHOICE Review

This fascinating work, by a finance professor turned consultant (Bogue) and a leading academic management scientist (Buffa), is a worthy complement to Michael E. Porter's Competitive Strategy (CH, Feb '81). Beginning with simple concepts such as the growth/share matrix and the experience curve, the authors show how successive elaborations permit strategic analysis to create economic value. Five core chapters are devoted to industry and market structures (value-added, economies of scale, capacity versus demand, prices and margins); global competition (company productivity relative to national productivity, exchange rates); product and activity structures (shared activities, economies of scope); diversification and acquisition analysis (market value versus book value, growth-opportunity hallmarks); and financial implications (margin paradox, leverage, inflation, capacity expansion). Two final chapters treat simulation of alternatives (events versus impacts, sensitivity analysis, controllable versus uncontrollable events) and review the planning and implementing of strategy. Bogue and Buffa use extensive company and industry examples and spare readers the bloody quantitative details; they keep the focus squarely on the powerful concepts, offering much revealing and accessible economic and financial insight. This volume is most highly recommended for upper-division and graduate audiences.-J.C. Thompson, University of Connecticut