A. Adaptive strategies were developed from the study of business strategies by Miles and Snow. They identified four strategic types. Defender is a business-level strategy that seeks stability by producing only a limited set of products directed at a narrow segment of the total potential market. Prospector is a business-level strategy that seeks innovation by finding and exploiting new product and market opportunities. Analyzer is a business-level strategy that seeks to minimize risk by following competitors' innovations, but only after they have proven successful.
Reactor is a business-level strategy that characterizes inconsistent and unstable decision patterns.
B. Competitive strategies developed out of the work of Michael Porter. This framework suggests that managers can choose from among three generic strategies. Industry analysis is an important step in Porter's framework. Porter says that there are five competitive forces at work. Barriers to entry are factors that determine how easy or hard it is for new competitors to enter an industry.