If your business earns superior profits, existing and potential competitors will do their best to get a piece of the success. It is essential for firms to examine a variety of business strategies to enhance the prospects of sustainable profitability. Out of all factors that impact an industry's sustainable profitability, this CLA2 assessment focuses on the most damaging threat to sustainable profit, the entry of competitors into the market.

Entry into the market heightens competition and reduces the margins of existing firms in a wide variety of industry settings. For this reason, the ability of existing firms to sustain profits depends on how barriers to entry affect the ease with which other firms can enter the industry including the formation of new companies (Wendy's entered the fast-food industry in the 1970s); globalization strategies by foreign companies (Toyota entered the U.S. automobile market the middle of the last century) , and the introduction of new product lines by existing firms (computer manufacturer Apple now also sells the popular iPhone).