Richard D'Aveni depicts competitor interactions in terms of movements against the variables of price (vertical axis) and perceived quality (horizontal axis), similar to the Strategy Clock.
He applies it to the very fast moving environments he calls hypercompetitive, but it can also wherever competitors' moves are interdependent.
In any market, competitors and their moves or counter-moves can be plotted against the two axis, the value line and the price line.
While companies make their moves, they also change customers perceptions of value, and expectations of quality.
Plotting moves and counter-moves underlines the dynamic and interactive nature of business strategy.
Economically viable positions along the value line are always in danger of being superseded as competitors move either downwards or in terms of price or outwards in terms of perceived value.
The generic strategies of cost leadership and differentiation should not be seen as static positions, but as dynamic trajectories along the axes of price and quality.
Eg. The movement towards more local Starbucks demonstrates the need to be continually moving along the trajectory of differentiation