マイケル・ポーター（Michael E Porter）は、企業の競争戦略、産業構造、国や地域の競争力を研究する経営学者、経済学者。プリンストン大学で航空宇宙工学を学び、ハーバード大学でMBAとビジネス・エコノミクスの博士号を取得した。産業組織論の考え方を企業の戦略に応用し、1980年の『競争の戦略』（原題 “Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors”、邦訳1982年）では、既存企業間の競争、新規参入、代替品、買い手と売り手の交渉力という五つの競争要因から業界の収益構造を分析し、コスト・リーダーシップ、差別化、集中という基本戦略を示した。1985年の『競争優位の戦略――いかに高業績を持続させるか』（原題 “Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance”、同年邦訳）では、企業の活動を価値連鎖として捉え、個々の活動とその結びつきがコストや差別化を生む仕組みを検討した。その後、研究対象を地域の産業集積、環境政策、企業と社会の関係、医療制度へ広げ、2000年にはハーバード大学と同経営大学院が戦略・競争力研究所を設立した。エリザベス・オルムステッド・テイスバーグとの2006年の共著『医療戦略の本質――価値を向上させる競争』（原題 “Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results”、邦訳2009年）では、医療費の押し付け合いではなく、疾患ごとの診療過程を通じて得られる患者の治療成果と費用の関係を競争の中心に置き、成果測定と医療提供体制の再編を論じた。
Michael E Porter is a scholar of management and economics whose research examines company strategy, industry structure, and national and regional competitiveness. He studied aerospace engineering at Princeton University and earned an MBA and a doctorate in business economics at Harvard. Applying industrial organization economics to business strategy, “Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors” (1980; Japanese translation, 1982) examined industry profitability through five forces: rivalry, entry, substitutes, and the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers. It set out the generic strategies of cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. “Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance” (1985, also translated into Japanese that year) developed the value chain as a way to examine a company’s activities and the links between them, explaining how they generate differences in cost and differentiation. His later research extended to industrial clusters, environmental policy, the relationship between business and society, and health care. Harvard University and Harvard Business School established the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness in 2000. With Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg, he coauthored “Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results” (2006; Japanese translation, 2009). The book proposed competition centred on patient outcomes relative to the cost of achieving them, rather than competition to shift costs between participants. It examined measurement of results and the reorganization of care around medical conditions across the full cycle of treatment.
