A Strategic Framework for Assessing Product Line Additions
提出一个描述性框架，帮助管理者评估产品线扩展，分析品种与成本的关系、自相蚕食与互补性的决定因素，以及不回应竞争创新的后果。
In a dynamic marketplace, managers need more than tactical demand analysis techniques and capital budgeting models to fully evaluate proposed product line additions. In this article, Joseph Guiltinan offers a descriptive framework to guide strategic thinking about the length of a product line. Specifically, his framework allows managers to identify the situations in which variety is an important competitive variable, examine the relationship between variety and cost, understand the underlying determinants of cannibalization and complementarity, and assess the consequences of not responding to competitive innovations. The article also shows how the relative importance of the various elements in the framework depends on the expectations that top management has established for the business unit or product line in question.