Porter's Five Forces Explained and How to Use the Model

The fundamentals you need to analyze an industry's weaknesses and strengths

By

Peter Gratton

Updated August 08, 2025

Reviewed by

Gordon Scott

Fact checked by Patrice Williams

Definition

Porter’s Five Forces are used to identify and analyze the forces that shape the competitive nature
and intensity of a market or industry.

What Are Porter's Five Forces?

Porter's Five Forces is a tool used to analyze a market or industry and determine its
competitiveness. These five forces were developed by Harvard business professor Michael Porter,
who wrote about the strategic analysis model in the Harvard Business Review in 1979.1 The five
forces are: internal competition, the potential for new entrants, the negotiating power of suppliers,
the negotiating power of customers, and the ability of customers to find substitutes.

Key Takeaways

• Porter's Five Forces are used to identify and analyze an industry's competitive forces.

• The five forces are competition, the threat of new entrants to the industry, supplier
bargaining power, customer bargaining power, and the ability of customers to find product
substitutes.

• Businesses can use the model to determine the intensity of competition and potential
profitability, helping them better understand where power lies in their sector.

• Porter's model was meant to critique perfectly competitive business models, unlike real-
world markets where competitors aren't just rivals.

• Critics of the model say it's too static and doesn't apply as well to quick-changing markets,
among other things.

Understanding Porter's Five Forces

When Porter's article was published, strategic models loved acronyms (SWOT, PEST, PESTEL, BCG
Matrix, ETPS, etc.) and focused on the internal dynamics of individual companies.2 However, they
were vague in their exploration of the competitive business environment. For instance, the
opportunities and threats of SWOT analysis were too macro for many dealing with specific industry
challenges.
Porter's 1979 article was also a broadside against the theoretical models found in the curriculums
of major business schools, where future strategists dealt with a perfectly competitive market
characterized by equilibrium and no specific firm influencing prices—a model they were unlikely to
find in the real world.

The first sentence of Porter's 1979 article could hardly be less controversial: "The essence of
strategy formulation is coping with competition."1 It's the following sentence that, in its understated
way, would prove far more consequential: "Yet it is easy to view competition too narrowly and too
pessimistically."1

Rather than viewing competition narrowly as rivalry among existing competitors, which is his first
force, Porter expanded the concept to include four others: the bargaining power of suppliers and
buyers, the threat of new entrants, and the threat of substitute products or services.

The Five Forces in Detail

1. Competitive Rivals

When we think of business competition, we think of rivals like Pepsi and Coke for soft drinks, Apple
and Samsung for smartphones, Nike and Adidas for sneakers, and Ford and GM for autos. Some
rivalries are so influential that consumers are almost culturally split between those who have an
iPhone or prefer Nike shoes. Thus, it's no accident that we also consider business competition
chiefly a war among rivals.

Rivalries can lead to price wars, high-priced marketing battles, and races for slight advances that
could mean a competitive advantage. These tactics can stimulate companies to make even better
products, but also erode profits and market stability.3

Several factors contribute to the intensity of competitive rivalry in an industry:

• The number of competitors: More competitors means a fiercer rivalry where each fights for
scraps of market share.

• Industry growth: Competition is usually less dramatic because the market grows so fast
that competitors have little need to fight for customers—think of the automobile industry of
the early 20th century. Competition can be ferocious in a declining industry as firms fight for
a larger piece of a shrinking pie, such as in the print media industry of today.

• Similarities in what's offered: Competition tends to be intense because customers can

• Exit barriers: When it's difficult or costly for companies to leave the industry due to
specialized assets, contractual obligations, or emotional attachment, they may choose to
stay and compete, even if the market's prospects grow dimmer. For instance, airlines have
high costs, which means that when airlines face a shrinking market—or even an
unprofitable route—they can't retreat from the market quickly.
 • Fixed costs: Porter notes that if an industry has high fixed costs, companies have a "strong
temptation" to cut prices rather than slow production when demand slackens. Paper and
aluminum manufacturing are two good examples that Porter mentions.1

2. Potential for New Entrants in an Industry

Industries where new firms can enter more easily almost always have lower profit margins, and the
firms involved each have less market share.1

The sector for local restaurants has relatively low entry requirements: there aren't significant
investments or regulatory hurdles before opening to the public. Thus, it's also the case that your
favorite restaurant may not stay open for long, given the hypercompetitive environment and
constant openings of new restaurants.

Here are factors in measuring how much new entrants threaten an industry:

• Economies of scale: Industries where large-scale production leads to lower costs face less
of a threat from new entrants. New firms would need to achieve a similar size to compete on
price, which might be difficult or costly.

• Product differentiation: When existing firms have strong brand identities or customer
loyalty, it's harder for new entrants to gain market share, reducing the threat of entry.

• Capital requirements: High startup costs for equipment, facilities, etc., can deter new
entrants. For example, starting a car manufacturing business requires significant
investment, so until Tesla's (TSLA) growth in the early 2010s, Americans from the 1950s
could have named the major U.S. car brands of the early 2000s.

• Access to distribution channels: If existing firms control the distribution channels—retail

• Regulations: Licenses, safety standards, and other regulatory standards can create
barriers, making it too ungainly or costly for new firms to enter the market. Examples
include those looking to build new hotels in downtown areas or supply power to a region.

• Switching costs: If it's costly or difficult for customers to switch from existing firms to new
entrants, the threat of entry is lower.

3. Supplier Power

Suppliers are powerful when they are the only source of something important that a firm needs, can
differentiate their product, or have strong brands.1 Higher supplier power in an industry raises
costs or otherwise limits the resources a firm needs.

Here are some factors used to measure the supplier power of an industry:

• The number of suppliers: When a few firms can give a company something it needs to stay
in business, each has greater negotiating power. They can raise prices or reduce quality
without fear of losing business.
 • Uniqueness: If a supplier provides a unique product or it's not easy to find a substitute, it is
more dominant. Businesses can't easily switch to another supplier.

• Switching costs: If it's costly or time-consuming to switch suppliers, then they have more
power. Businesses are less likely to switch, even if prices increase.

• Forward integration: If suppliers can move into the buyer's industry, they have more power.
They already have access to the necessary supplies, making it difficult for their former
buyers to compete once they decide to enter the market themselves.

• Industry importance: Some sectors are tightly intertwined, such as automotive suppliers
and the major auto companies, or the semiconductor and tech industries, which can
balance the power between the suppliers and those in the sector. This is because the
supplier needs these buyers to do well so that it can, too. When a supplier can just as easily
sell its products elsewhere, that gives it a great deal more power.

4. Customer Power

When customers have more strength, they can exert pressure on businesses to provide better
products or services at lower prices. This force intensifies under certain conditions:

• The number of buyers: Fewer buyers mean more power. In sectors like aerospace
manufacturing, each major airline (the industry's customers) has significant leverage in
negotiations and can demand favorable terms because the sellers depend on their
business.

• Purchase size: Just like you head off to the big box stores to buy in bulk for a cheaper per-
unit cost on whatever now fills up your garage, major retail chains like Walmart (WMT) buy in
large volumes and can negotiate better terms and discounts.

• Switching costs: In industries like telecommunications, where it's easy for consumers to
switch providers, companies such as Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T) have to offer competitive
terms.

• Price sensitivity: In the fast-fashion industry, where customers are highly price-sensitive,
brands must keep their prices low to attract cost-conscious consumers.

• Informed buyers: In many sectors, the customers are savvy, know the competitive terrain
well, and thus can negotiate better prices.

Important

Porter chose the metaphor of forces because they aren't static, so businesses must constantly
adjust their strategies as forces in an industry change.

5. Threat of Substitutes

When customers can find substitutes for a sector's services, that's a major threat to the companies
in that industry.2 Here are some ways that this threat can be magnified:
 • Relative price performance: If a substitute's cost is lower and its performance is
comparable or better, customers are likely to switch to the substitute. For instance,
streaming services like Netflix (NFLX) became a substitute for traditional cable TV, providing
a lower price that threatened the cable industry.

• Customer willingness to go elsewhere: The threat is high if buyers find it easy to switch to
a substitute. For example, customers found switching from taxis to ride-sharing apps like
Uber or Lyft cheaper and easier.

• The sense that products are similar: If buyers perceive that there are few differences
between your product and a substitute, even if there are, they may be more likely to switch.

• Availability of close substitutes: Though this sounds the same as the last bullet point, you
have to strategize differently around it. There are times when potential substitutes are very
different from a company's products but consumers still treat them as the same. But in
other cases, there are genuinely similar products in the market and the threat of substitutes
is high, such as between brand-name and generic medications.

Competitive Measures

Porter's framework marked a departure from the then-dominant models of business strategy,
steeped in classic competition theory.4 These models rested on several key assumptions:

• Markets are arenas for many small firms with no significant market power

• Homogeneous products

• Perfect information symmetry

• No barriers to market entry or exit

While helpful for learning basic principles, this idealized view could be taken to an extreme when
strategizing with neatly constructed supply and demand curves, assuming, for instance, that new
market entrants would stabilize rising prices by increasing supply.

Business strategists need to deal with sectors where information asymmetry, product
differentiation, and significant entry and exit barriers are common. Firms do have some control over
prices, contradicting classical assumptions.

In short, where economists assumed most markets acted like the model, for Porter, most firms are
in industries with entrenched interests and different supplier and customer relations. They need
strategies for dealing with anything but perfect competition.5

Mild-to-Intense Competition

Porter's Five Forces come together in different ways for any given sector. He labeled industry
competition as ranging from "intense" to "mild," with profits harder to achieve as the intensity in a
sector rises. In intensely competitive industries, all or most of the five forces have a strong
influence.1
The fast food industry is Porter's example, which remains the case.1 In this sector, there's a fierce
rivalry among established players like McDonald's and Burger King, high bargaining power for
suppliers and customers, and a relentless threat of new entrants and substitutes, all of which
means profits are constantly getting squeezed for anyone in the sector.

There are weaker forces in mild industries like commercial aircraft manufacturing. Low supplier
bargaining power, a minimal threat of new entrants, and a lack of direct substitutes (like
commercial aircraft for long-distance travel) help form a sector more conducive to higher profits.

Applying the Model

Since his article, Porter has published many books on strategic analysis, including works where he
has expanded on his model. He's also become very concise in providing the specific steps in
performing an industry analysis:

1. Define the industry: The process begins with a clear description of the industry, helping
you to focus your analysis.

2. Identify the key players: Specify and group the major actors in the sector into strategic
categories based on relevant criteria.

3. Assess the strategic strengths: This means evaluating the firm and its industry to
determine the best and worst strategies that can be applied.

4. Analyze the industry structure: This involves examining the overall structure of the
industry, particularly the factors that influence how profitable it is.

5. Evaluate the competitive forces: Only once you've done the above does Porter advise
doing a detailed analysis of the five competitive forces, assessing the positive and negative
effects, and then looking ahead to any changes in these forces.

6. Identify the factors you have some control over: Here, you want to pinpoint aspects of the
industry structure that could be influenced by competitors, new market entrants, or your
firm. In sum, what can be changed?

Critiques of the Five Forces

Porter’s model helped reframe the understanding of competition. It wasn’t confined to direct rivals
but extended to suppliers and customers, traditionally viewed in a transactional light.

Suppliers, especially those with unique resources or enjoying a monopoly, could dictate terms,
lower profits, or, in extreme cases, forward-integrate into the buyer’s industry. Customers also
wield power, especially with bulk buying, when they go elsewhere quickly or bypass companies for
in-house products.2

But the model has its pitfalls.

Sector Affiliation

Many have critiqued the model’s emphasis on sector affiliation. Porter concentrates on industry-
wide forces, which can sideline an individual company’s unique strategies and advantages. This
industry-centric view may not fully capture how distinct company characteristics can change the
game, not just play within an industry’s preset rules.6

The model assumes clear lines among sectors, which may not be tenable given the increasingly
blurred lines in today’s business world, where companies are simultaneously in several sectors.
Industries are no longer isolated silos; instead, they often intersect and interact, leading to a far
more complex environment than the model suggests.4

Partnerships

Another critique is that Porter's model doesn't adequately address the role of collaboration.6 While
Porter entertained a competitive model where rivalry wasn’t just a war to the death, the problem is
that he didn’t go far enough. In an interconnected global economy, alliances and cooperative
strategies are often as pivotal to success as having a competitive advantage, a factor that the
model doesn’t explicitly consider.

It's Too Static

Another critique that can be filed under “going in the right direction but not far enough” is that the
model is too static and fails to account for industries with rapid changes in technology
and consumer preferences. While effective in stable sectors, critics say it doesn’t apply well to
industries marked by fast-paced innovation and shifting demand.2

Most strikingly, Porter’s model generalizes competition, implying a seemingly uniform industry
structure for every market.2 This might overlook the unique competitive scenarios in different
sectors and the increasing importance of the nontraditional strategies involved in digital
transformation and platform-based competition.

How Does Porter's Five Forces Differ From SWOT Analysis?

Both are strategic planning tools, but they serve different purposes. The five-force model analyzes
the competitive environment of an industry, looking at its intensity and the bargaining power of
suppliers and customers. SWOT analysis, meanwhile, is broader and assesses a company's
internal strengths and weaknesses as well as its external opportunities and threats.

It can assist in strategic planning by pinpointing areas where the company excels and faces
obstacles, helping to align the company's strategy with its internal resources and prospects in the
market while mitigating its vulnerabilities and external challenges.

How Can Porter's Five Forces Address the Effects of Globalization on an Industry?

Porter's model has been used to analyze the effects of globalization on industry competition. For
instance, globalization lowers barriers to entry in specific industries, intensifying the threat of new
entrants from different regions.2

It can also expand the pool of potential substitutes and alter the power dynamics with suppliers
and customers worldwide. While Porter and others were doing this analysis for industries facing
global competition decades ago, it's still applicable to sectors undergoing this process in the
2020s.
How Does Porter's Five-Forces Model Apply to the AI Sector?

Using the model, we would begin by looking at the competitive rivalry. The AI sector is marked by
high competition with key players ranging from tech giants to small startups. Rapid advances mean
companies have to move quickly to maintain relevance. We would then need to gauge the power of
suppliers of data sets and specialized hardware, which have ample power since AI firms rely heavily
on these resources.

We would also need to review the needs of individual consumers and whether larger companies
can force AI firms to negotiate better services and prices for them. The field of AI attracts many new
entrants, but there are significant barriers to entry, including high initial R&D costs.

Lastly, the threat from the last force, the possibility of substitutes, depends on what a firm wants to
do with its AI-based technology. The more complicated the tasks the AI is given, the more likely
other goods and services can't substitute for it.

The Bottom Line

Porter's five-forces model sets out a framework for considering a company's competitive
landscape: the power of suppliers and buyers, the threat of new entrants and substitutes, and
competitive rivalry.

While the economic terrain evolved significantly since the 1970s and Porter has updated his work
since then, the principles underlying his model remain current. It's still the case that companies
don't rise and fall on their portfolio of products alone but are jockeying with others in industries that
have their logic and structural forces at play.

While the model may require adapting it to rapid technological change and the importance of
collaboration across many industries, it's a reliable way to help guide companies needing to
navigate industry-specific challenges in their competitive strategy.

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