Porter’s Five Forces Analysis is a tool that helps business strategists understand the competitive forces at work in their industry. This tool can be used to determine which market participants have power, and therefore, whether they are able to dictate the terms of competition. Porter's Five Forces is a framework for analyzing the strength of five important forces that determine the profitability of an industry and shape its overall attractiveness: threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, and degree of rivalry among existing firms.