BCG Growth-Share Matrix
The BCG growth-share matrix is a portfolio-analysis tool that classifies a diversified company's business units on two axes — the growth rate of their market and their market share relative to the largest competitor — and uses that classification to guide cash allocation across the portfolio. Devised by Bruce Henderson at the Boston Consulting Group around 1970, it rests on two ideas BCG had developed: that cash generation rises with relative market share (via the experience curve) and that cash consumption rises with market growth. The familiar four-quadrant scheme — stars, cash cows, question marks (problem children), and dogs — was popularized and operationalized by Barry Hedley's 1977 Long Range Planning article, while Hax and Majluf's 1983 Interfaces paper subjected the matrix to critical analysis and refinement. It became the archetypal corporate portfolio framework of the 1970s and 1980s.
Source record
Citations copied verbatim from the method’s source record. No claim-level verification is inferred from them.
- Hedley, B. (1977). Strategy and the 'Business Portfolio'. Long Range Planning, 10(1), 9-15. · DOI 10.1016/0024-6301(77)90042-5
- Hax, A. C., & Majluf, N. S. (1983). The Use of the Growth-Share Matrix in Strategic Planning. Interfaces, 13(1), 46-60. · DOI 10.1287/inte.13.1.46
Curated claims
Claims persisted in the evidence ledger, each with its own assessment.
This view does not invent a claim assessment when the ledger has none.
Related methods
Generated from the method graph and shown as machine-suggested relations — no evidence claim is inferred.