The analysis of industry structure. The concept of market structure has proven to be very useful in informing both research and government policy. However, the concept can sometimes be inconvenient to use to identify threats in a company’s local environment.22 Michael E. Porter’s well-known analytical framework, the Five Forces model, is essential in identifying opportunities and threats facing a specific company in an industrial context. Porter developed two important assumptions that form the basis of his five forces model: (1) rather than defining competition narrowly as rivalry to explain and predict a firm’s performance, competition must be viewed more broadly through considering the other forces in an industry, (2) the profit potential of an industry is a function of the five forces that shape competition.