Michael Porter opens Competitive Strategy by establishing his foundational contribution to business strategy: bringing rigorous economic analysis and structured analytical frameworks to competitive strategic thinking, which Porter argues had previously relied more heavily on general business experience and intuition than on systematic, economically-grounded analytical structure.

Porter's foundational argument:

• He argues that competitive strategic decision-making, despite its enormous practical significance, had historically lacked the kind of rigorous, systematic analytical framework that other business disciplines — finance, operations — had already developed, positioning his work as bringing comparable analytical rigor specifically to competitive strategy
• Porter draws on industrial organization economics — a specific academic economics subfield examining how industry structure affects firm behavior and profitability — adapting and translating this academic economic framework into practically applicable business strategy tools
• This foundational premise, combining academic economic rigor with practical business strategy application, sets up the book's overall project: presenting specific, systematic frameworks for analyzing industry structure and competitive positioning, establishing much of the fundamental vocabulary subsequently used throughout business strategy practice and education

This foundational framing establishes Porter's distinctive contribution and credibility: bringing genuine academic economic rigor to a business strategy domain that had previously relied more heavily on case-based experience and management intuition.