This study used computer-assisted content analysis of more than four hundred presidents' letters to shareholders to examine empirical linkages between cognitive strategic groups clustered by themes in the reports and strategic groups clustered by performance. We found these groups converged as predicted by the literature, and that mental models and performance are involved in a recursive process of competitive enactment which contributes to strategic group stability. Our research used inductively derived themes from the letters to structure a mental model widely shared in the pharmaceutical industry, and then employed thematic variations to find stable clusters of companies. These thematic clusters were triangulated with the strategic groups from a published study of the same industry, in the same period, and were shown to converge. Additionally, longitudinal linkages between earlier mental models of strategic goals and later reports of performance were found. The findings of our large-scale empirical study support strategic group theory, demonstrate a novel approach to data mining, and pose questions for future research.

We prove that a non-elementary relatively hyperbolic group is statistically hyperbolic with respect to every finite generating set. We also establish statistical hyperbolicity for certain direct products of two groups, one of which is relatively hyperbolic.Comment: 12 pages; Several corrections and improvements on the exposition after referee report. Version to appear in Algebraic and Geometric Topolog

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