ABSTRACT
Like most applied disciplines, industrial organisation has taken many forms in different hands so that there is no widely accepted approach to be characterised by a single label. The recent works on strategic competition, and the works on the strategic management/economics nexus refer to three paradigms in the field of industrial organisation: the structure-conduct-performance (SCP), the Chicago School, and new industrial organization. Nevertheless theorists working within its frame of reference approached the market not from what it is but what it should be. With regards to strategic management, the significance of imperfectly competitive markets stems not only from their real and prevalent existence in the world of business, but also from being only 'competitive' markets in the everyday sense of the concept of competition. The paradigm is concerned with identifying properties of industries contributing to above-normal profitability.
