Column 2 · Competition and Timing · Era 6, Engagement and Networks (2010s)
Market Shaping
Formulation, content · Emerging or specialized · Cluster I, Strategic Choice
Description
They identified the capabilities that let firms trigger and facilitate market shaping, actively changing a market's characteristics to increase value creation.
Managerial Implications
Markets are not fixed; firms can shape them by changing exchanges, networks, and institutions, for example by redefining the product, creating new intermediaries, or setting standards. Market shaping is a capability that combines vision, influence over other actors, and timing. Managers in emerging categories should ask which market structure would favor them and what they can do to bring it about, rather than accepting the market as given.