Strategic groups and cognitive groups: Theoretical comparison and empirical analysis in the homebuilding industry

Strategic group is a group of firms in an industry that follow the same or a similar strategy. This concept has been widely used for researchers as an intermediate tool between the analysis of the industry as a whole and the individual analysis of competing firms. Its main use is a tool to help managers cope with their bounded rationality and reduce uncertainty. What this thesis tries to answer is whether these researcher-defined groupings are really relevant for the strategy-making process and whether they correspond with managers personal taxonomies of competitors.;To do so, we analyze the Homebuilding Industry in a small town developing two parallel empirical studies. First, we identify the strategic groups that integrate that industry following the traditional economic-approach---cluster analyses. Moreover, using repertory grid technique, we analyze managers' mental models in order to obtain their personal taxonomies of competitors. Our empirical analysis demonstrates that both categorization of competitors, research-defined and manager defined are convergent, suggesting a direct and indirect causation between them.;The dissertation is organized as follows: In the first chapter we justify the Thesis and show our objectives and hypothesis to be contrasted. The second chapter makes a literature review on strategic groups. The third chapter does the same review on cognitive groups literature. In the fourth chapter we present an integrative model that compares the Positioning School---strategic groups---with the Cognitive School cognitive groups. The fifth chapter shows the results of the first empirical analysis carried out on the Homebuilding Industry. The sixth chapter presents the managers' vision of their industry. The seventh chapter compares both classifications of competitors. The eight chapter presents the conclusions and implications of the findings for academics and managers.