How Firms Leverage External Drivers of Technological and Social Change to Achieve Market Dominance

Thesis Defence
How Firms Leverage External Drivers of Technological and Social Change to Achieve Market Dominance

Ian Hallett, PhD candidate in the Global Executive Ph.D., will publicly defend his thesis in Management Sciences.

December 8, 2025
11:00 CET
ESCP Berlin campus, Room D-009

Attend the defence
(on campus or online)

Abstract

This thesis examines whether firms that dominate the profit pools of their markets do so by aligning strategy to external drivers of technological and social change. It explores three axioms. First, market dominance exists and is measurable. By borrowing methods from antitrust law, the study calculates profit share thresholds across 8,430 US-listed firms in 81 industries (2015–2019) and identifies a small set of “superfirms” that capture a dominant share of industry profits. Second, firms face external drivers of technological and social change. A literature review of 88 articles resulted in a multi-level driver framework (five transformative forces, expanded by 13 driver families, and further elaborated by 32 driver clusters, which are based on 292 drivers of technological and social change) and a growth–impact matrix that classifies drivers by research momentum and net opportunity or threat. Third, firms that align their strategy with drivers of technological and social change more than their peers are more likely to become a superfirm. A dictionary-based content analysis of 120 annual reports from three paired companies over twenty years shows that superfirms weight their strategic narrative towards such drivers more than a paired competitor.

The thesis introduces Thematic Strategy: an approach in which leaders choose a small number of themes drawn from the driver framework, and align goals, resource allocation, and capability renewal to them. Thematic Strategy connects foresight, the resource view, and positioning by directing capital to assets that amplify chosen themes in a way that drives competitive advantage. Contributions include a method for assessing market dominance based on profit pools, a navigable map of technological and social drivers, and a proposed approach to strategy development that encourages strategic fit over time with drivers of technological and social change as the central way of gaining competitive advantage.

Jury