Confronta i metodi

	Structure-Conduct-Performance Analysis	Strategic Group Analysis
Campo	Gestione strategica	Gestione strategica
Famiglia	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Anno di origine	1968	1977
Ideatore	Joe S. Bain (Bain-Mason tradition); Michael E. Porter (strategy adaptation)	Michael S. Hunt; Richard Caves & Michael Porter; John McGee & Howard Thomas
Tipo	Causal-chain framework linking industry structure to firm conduct and performance	Intra-industry clustering pipeline for strategic positioning
Fonte seminale	Bain, J. S. (1968). Industrial Organization (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 9780471042914	Caves, R. E., & Porter, M. E. (1977). From Entry Barriers to Mobility Barriers: Conjectural Decisions and Contrived Deterrence to New Competition. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 91(2), 241-261.
Alias	SCP Paradigm Analysis, Bain-Mason Industrial Organization Analysis, Industry Structure-Performance Analysis, SCP Framework	Strategic Groups Analysis, Mobility Barrier Analysis, Intra-Industry Group Analysis, Strategic Cluster Analysis
Correlati	3	4
Sintesi	The structure-conduct-performance (SCP) paradigm is the foundational framework of industrial organization, holding that the structure of an industry shapes the conduct of the firms within it, which in turn determines their performance. In the Bain-Mason tradition, codified in Joe Bain's classic text, industries with high concentration and strong barriers to entry let firms behave in ways -- coordinated pricing, entry deterrence -- that yield persistently high profits, while fragmented, low-barrier industries push performance toward competitive levels. Michael Porter's 1981 article showed how this economic logic could be turned to the purposes of strategic management: where industrial organization treats structure as a determinant of an industry's average profitability and a target for antitrust policy, the strategist inverts it, asking how a firm can position itself within or reshape structure to earn above-normal returns. SCP analysis traces the structure-conduct-performance chain to explain and predict why some industries and firms are more profitable than others.	Strategic group analysis partitions the firms in an industry into clusters that pursue similar strategies along key competitive dimensions, and explains why these clusters persist and why their members earn different returns. The concept originates with Michael Hunt's 1972 dissertation on the U.S. home-appliance industry and was given its theoretical engine by Caves and Porter's 1977 reconceptualization of entry barriers as mobility barriers — structural impediments that protect not just the industry from outsiders but each strategic group from incursion by firms in other groups. McGee and Thomas's 1986 review consolidated the construct, clarifying which variables legitimately define groups and how groups, mobility barriers, and isolating mechanisms relate to performance. The method bridges industrial-organization economics and strategic management by treating intra-industry structure, not just industry-level structure, as the relevant unit of competitive analysis.