Market-scanning and market-shaping: why are firms blindsided by market-shaping acts?

Diaz Ruiz, Carlos A.; Baker, Jonathan J.; Mason, Katy; Tierney, Kieran

Abstract

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate two seminal market-scanning frameworks – the five-forces analysis and PESTEL environmental scanning tool – to assess their readiness for anticipating market-shaping acts.

Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on the market-shaping literature that conceptualizes markets as complex adaptive systems, this conceptual paper interrogates the underlying assumptions and “blind spots” in two seminal market-scanning frameworks. The paper showcases three illustrative vignettes in which non-industry actors catalyzed market change in ways that these market-scanning frameworks would not be able to anticipate.

Findings: Marketing strategists can be “blindsided” as seminal market-scanning frameworks have either too narrow an interpretation of market change or are too broad to anticipate specific types of market-shaping acts. The assumptions about markets that underpin these market-scanning frameworks contribute to incumbents being slow to realize market-shaping acts are taking place.

Research limitations/implications: The authors extend market-scanning to include a type of managerial myopia that fails to register the socially embedded, systemic nature of complex contemporary markets. Furthermore, the paper provides an “actors-agendas-outcomes” scanning framework that offers awareness of market-shaping acts.

Originality/value: This paper is the first to consider market-scanning frameworks from a market-shaping perspective.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jun 15, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jan 31, 2025
• Journal: Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing
• Print ISSN: 0885-8624
• Publisher: Emerald
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 35
• Issue: 9
• Pages: 1389-1401
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/jbim-03-2019-0130