Porter's Five Forces · AQA A-Level Business 3.3.2

Can You Feel the Force

One idea: how much profit an industry can make is set by five competitive forces. You rate four of them, and watch how together they drive the fifth, competitive rivalry, right at the centre.

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Choose a market to analyse

Pick an industry. You'll rate four of its forces, then can come back and compare another.

Michael Porter argued that how profitable any industry can be is shaped by five competitive forces. Four of them (buyer power, supplier power, the threat of new entrants and the threat of substitutes) press in on the fifth: the competitive rivalry at the heart of the market.

Your task: rate those four forces, watch how strongly they (and the way the industry is built) drive rivalry, see the overall attractiveness build up live, compare with an expert, then choose a realistic move to ease one force.

This is about how the market is built, not a verdict on any one company.

Data sources & notes
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Rate the four forces:

There's no single right answer. Make a judgement and move the slider. The diagram and the attractiveness read update as you decide.

Competitive rivalry isn't a slider. Porter puts it at the centre of the model, driven by these four forces and by how the industry is built (high fixed costs, how hard it is to leave, how alike the products are). Rate all four and watch the rivalry box work itself out.

🕸️ The Five-Force Diagram

The four outer forces press in on competitive rivalry at the centre.

📊 Industry Attractiveness

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out of 100
Rate all four
Very toughChallengingAttractive
A higher score means more room to make profit. Strong forces push it down.
Move all four sliders to continue.
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How an expert reads

There's no single right answer here, and sensible people will differ. Compare the reasoning, not just the rating.

The judgement that matters

🕸️ Diagram: Expert Read

Rivalry (centre) is the result of the four forces plus how the industry is built.

📊 Attractiveness: Expert

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out of 100
Very toughChallengingAttractive
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Influence a force

You can't change rivalry directly, but you can ease the forces that drive it. Pick a force the expert rated High or Very High, choose a realistic action, and watch rivalry and the score respond.

1 · Pick a strong force to tackle

🕸️ Diagram: After Your Move

Ease a force and watch rivalry at the centre ease with it.

📊 Attractiveness

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expert baseline
Very toughChallengingAttractive
Make a move to see the shift.

What you can now do

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Read the four forces

You rated buyer power, supplier power, new entrants and substitutes for a real market and saw why each is strong or weak.

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Explain rivalry

You saw competitive rivalry come from the other four forces and how the industry is built, not as a separate choice you make.

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Respond to the forces

You eased a force with a realistic move, watched rivalry follow, and weighed up the trade-off.

Thinking like a strategist

How attractive a market is comes down to judgement, not a checklist.

ApplyBack up each force with the industry's real facts: the players, the prices and the numbers you just used, instead of vague general points.
ReasonBuild the chain: a strong force puts pressure on prices or costs, which makes rivalry fiercer, which leaves less profit. Show how the force leads to the result, step by step.
JudgeWeigh the forces against each other, name the ones that matter most in this market, hold any "yes, but" (such as "but it's growing"), and decide which way the balance falls.
⭐ The real skill is saying which forces matter most here and why, and how they combine to make rivalry fierce or gentle.
Compare a different industry, or rate the same one differently.