Industry Analysis of Amazon, Inc.
Objective: Students need to be able to give a description of the industry selected for this purpose
using Porter’s Five Forces Model. All the information should come from secondary sources, so
students would need to cite their sources appropriately (following the APA 6 standard in My
Monroe).
Suggested Outline: students may want to use the following suggested outline to guide their effort
in developing the paper.
1. NAICS code and description of the industry selected (optional). NAICS code of Company
Chosen to Study
2. Country level information: current size of the industry in terms of revenues, evolution of the
industry’s revenues in terms of historical figures (at least 5 years), number of competitors,
segments of the industry, quantitative information about those segments.
3. State level: same as above but for the most likely state in which the student’s business will be
in (if applicable)
4. City level: same as above but for the city in which the student’s business might be developed.
(if applicable)
5. Porter’s Five Forces Model: Students need to explain as much as possible about each one of
the 5 forces including:
a) Rivalry among existing competitors – high or low? Why?
b) Threat of New Entrants – high or low? Why?
c) Threat of Substitute Products and Services – high or low? Why?
d) Bargaining Power of Suppliers – high or low? Why?
e) Bargaining Power of Buyers – high or low? Why?
In regards to competitors, after giving general information about the specific competitors,
students need to give as much information about the main competitors (based on the ones that make 50% of the market share, for example).
6. Students need to follow the materials given to them in the first three weeks of the course:
a) Porter’s Five Forces Model (HBR).
b) Investopedia’s 12 application examples document.
c) Purdue University’s Industry Analysis Assessment document.
d) All electronic databases [for example, Business Insights: Essentials (Gale)] in the Monroe
electronic database library.
7. Include as many numeric tables and graphs as appropriate.
