The Red Queen Effect: Principle, synthesis and implications for strategy

Le Red Queen Effect: Principe, synthèse et implications pour la stratégie

Hélène Delacour () and Sébastien Liarte ()
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Hélène Delacour: CEREFIGE - Centre Européen de Recherche en Economie Financière et Gestion des Entreprises - UL - Université de Lorraine
Sébastien Liarte: BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - AgroParisTech - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) - Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) Mulhouse - Colmar - UL - Université de Lorraine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement

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Abstract: Organisations competing with others seek a competitive advantage by improving their position compared to that of their rivals. Once they have gained this advantage, their competitors will in turn try to obtain an advantage in order not to be overtaken or left behind. This gives rise to a dynamic within the sector that makes it necessary for firms to invest ever more resources in order ultimately to remain in an identical competitive position. In the literature, this competitive spiral is called the Red Queen Effect (RQE). The aims of our research paper are threefold. First, we present this competitive process together with the main contradictory findings available in the literature. We then attempt to identify the contributions of the RQE theory by positioning it in relation to the main streams of research in strategy in order to highlight where it is similar to them and where it differs. Finally, an examination of the limitations enables us to identify future avenues for research on

Keywords: Competitive advantage; Competition (Economics); Investments; Business intelligence; Marketing strategy; Organizational research; Industrial organization (Management); Organizational effectiveness; Competitors; Exploration/Exploitation; Red Queen Effect; Compétition; Concurrence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in M@n@gement, 2012, 15 (3), pp.314 - 331. ⟨10.3917/mana.153.0314⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01380659

DOI: 10.3917/mana.153.0314

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