INDUSTRIAL MARKET STRUCTURE ANALYSIS IN A MAJOR MULTINATIONAL CORPORATION

With the advent of fierce international competition in today's industrial business environment, it has become imperative for companies to reevaluate the cost/price/value relationship of their products. In particular, highly competitive products require much closer attention to and control of the cost/price/value relationship to ensure continuing profitability. This paper examines one such product in an actual industrial setting (pseudonyms have been used to maintain data confidentiality) using a rather comprehensive conceptual framework based on Market Structure Analysis concepts. The proposed framework basically represents the industrial buying decision process which is both multiattribute and multiagent in nature. As pointed out by Sheth (1973) and Choffray and Lilien (1980), these industrial decision processes tend to become extremely complex due to heterogeneity among decision makers.