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Growth–share matrix

BCG MATRIX

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ795722 ↗
Source-derived summary

The growth–share matrix (also known as the product portfolio matrix, Boston Box, BCG-matrix, Boston matrix, Boston Consulting Group portfolio analysis and portfolio diagram) is a matrix used to help corporations to analyze their business units, that is, their product lines.

The matrix was initially created in a collaborative effort by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) employees. Alan Zakon first sketched it and then, together with his colleagues, refined it. BCG's founder Bruce D. Henderson popularized the concept in an essay titled "The Product Portfolio" in BCG's publication Perspectives in 1970. The matrix helps a company to allocate resources and is used as an analytical tool in brand marketing, product management, strategic management, and portfolio analysis.

Overview

To use the matrix, analysts plot a scatter graph to rank the business units (or products) on the basis of their relative market shares and growth rates. This results is a chart showing:

Cash cows, where a company has high market share in a slow-growing industry. These units typically generate cash in excess of the amount of cash needed to maintain the business. They are regarded as staid and boring, in a "mature" market, yet corporations value owning them due to their cash-generating qualities. They are to be "milked" continuously with as little investment as possible, since such investment would be wasted in an industry with low growth.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Growth–share matrix” as bCG MATRIX. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1970—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Growth, share and matrix can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as bCG MATRIX. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q795722. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1970.

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Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Growth–share matrix” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.