An Evolutionist Approach to Competitiveness for the Upstream Sector of the Oil industry in a Long Term Perspective
Abstract
The purpose of this work is to analyze the concepts of competition and competitiveness
in the upstream sector of the international oil industry, and to attempt to identify the
possibilities for the future development of this sector as well as the cornpetitive
interactions that may exist between the major oil actors, i.e. the international oil
companies. For this purpose, we develop a model of "oil competition" and a definjtion of
"oil competitiveness11 that take clearly into consideration both the differences between the
various oil actors and the dynarnic aspects linked to the evolution of the oil industry.
We do so by constructing an evolutionist model of oil competition and competitiveness.
This approach emulates a "biological process" in which firms and the economic
environment interact with each other in a process similar to "natural selection", with the
survival of the fittest. We then introduce the notion of the "dominant form of
competition". In addition, this evolutionist model uses some analytical instruments
established by Michael Porter, from the University of Harvard, which allow us to define
the concept of "generic competitive strategy of enterprises". We can thus interpret the
dissimilarities of behavior of various oil actors as weU as the temporal changes in their
strategies, in an attempt to explain the evolution of their respective role in an oil world
that is perpetually changing.
Domains
Economics and Finance
Origin : Files produced by the author(s)
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