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Research in business history and strategy has focused on firms and industries. While this is clearly useful, research on firm groupings, a distinct unit of analysis larger than single firms but smaller than entire industries, is also needed. Some publications exist, but competing groups of firms are not considered in a holistic and systematic fashion, especially when they may be pivotal to global success. To achieve high performance in global competition, however, multi-firm models of organization and management are now much more the rule than the exception.