Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model (5FM) was published in 1980 and since then has been used extensively to analyse the environment that a firm is operating in or intends to enter. The author uses an extra force which was added to the original 5 by the then C.E.O of Intel Andrew Grove. This force was called the complementors which Prasad feels has enhanced the model further. Complementors refer to the role played by external factors on a firm’s environment. For example the role played by the Irish government in the Irish airline industry with the control of the airports by the Dublin airport Authority (DAA) and not allowing a private company (Ryanair) build a new terminal at Dublin airport. It is used to understand the strategic position of the firm in relation to the extensive forces it has to deal with in an effort to be profitable. If the firm has a clear understanding of its strengths it can take advantage of them but also in case of weaknesses it can improve their situation and avoid making costly errors. It has traditionally been used to assess if new products/services or new markets will be profitable and to decide suitable strategies going forward. “Who controls the present controls the past; who controls the past controls the future.” (George Orwell)
In the article the author (Ajit Prasad) asserts that although the 5FM is useful but in order for a firm to assess its ability to enter a new market, it is vital for the decision maker to understand the culture and the history of the market. He develops a methodology which can be used to assess the attractiveness of a foreign market and will support and validate new market entry decisions. The author asserts that because the 5FM is based on ordinal values which are determined by behavioural characteristics, that in order to fully assess a market a decision maker has to study the culture and history of the