<P> The growth--share matrix (aka the product portfolio matrix, Boston Box, BCG - matrix, Boston matrix, Boston Consulting Group analysis, portfolio diagram) is a chart that was created by Bruce D. Henderson for the Boston Consulting Group in 1970 to help corporations to analyze their business units, that is, their product lines . This helps the company allocate resources and is used as an analytical tool in brand marketing, product management, strategic management, and portfolio analysis . Some analysis of market performance by firms using its principles has called its usefulness into question . </P> <P> To use the chart, analysts plot a scatter graph to rank the business units (or products) on the basis of their relative market shares and growth rates . </P> <Ul> <Li> Cash cows is 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 . </Li> <Li> Dogs, more charitably called pets, are units with low market share in a mature, slow - growing industry . These units typically "break even", generating barely enough cash to maintain the business's market share . Though owning a break - even unit provides the social benefit of providing jobs and possible synergies that assist other business units, from an accounting point of view such a unit is worthless, not generating cash for the company . They depress a profitable company's return on assets ratio, used by many investors to judge how well a company is being managed . Dogs, it is thought, should be sold off . </Li> <Li> Question marks (also known as problem children) are businesses operating with a low market share in a high - growth market . They are a starting point for most businesses . Question marks have a potential to gain market share and become stars, and eventually cash cows when market growth slows . If question marks do not succeed in becoming a market leader, then after perhaps years of cash consumption, they will degenerate into dogs when market growth declines . Question marks must be analyzed carefully in order to determine whether they are worth the investment required to grow market share . </Li> <Li> Stars are units with a high market share in a fast - growing industry . They are graduated question marks with a market - or niche - leading trajectory, for example: amongst market share front - runners in a high - growth sector, and / or having a monopolistic or increasingly dominant unique selling proposition with burgeoning / fortuitous proposition drive (s) from: novelty (e.g. Last.FM upon CBS Interactive's due diligence), fashion / promotion (e.g. newly prestigious celebrity - branded fragrances), customer loyalty (e.g. greenfield or military / gang enforcement backed, and / or innovative, grey - market / illicit retail of addictive drugs, for instance the British East India Company's, late - 1700s opium - based Qianlong Emperor embargo - busting, Canton System), goodwill (e.g. monopsonies) and / or gearing (e.g. oligopolies, for instance Portland cement producers near boomtowns), etc . The hope is that stars become next cash cows . </Li> </Ul> <Li> Cash cows is 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 . </Li>

Difference between cash cow star dog and question mark
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