Strategic group analysis in strategic marketing: an application to Spanish savings banks

The analysis of strategic groups has important implications in marketing in the identification of a firm’s competitive position. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that differences in the performance between the strategic groups within an industry exist. The initial hypothesis is that mobility barriers between the groups mean that their members have a relative advantage over other participants in the sector as far as expenses regarding imitation are concerned. Therefore, differences in profits tend to be maintained on a medium‐ and long‐term basis. However, the majority of empirical studies do not show the differences in the perfomance in a clear way. The methodology used consists of different multivariant statistical techniques. On their application to the Spanish savings banks, a limited support for this relation is obtained for some variables.