The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix, also known as the Boston Box, is a strategic tool used for portfolio analysis. It classifies a company's business units into four categories based on their market growth rate and relative market share. The term "Dog" is used to describe a business unit that has a low relative market share in a market with a low growth rate. These units typically generate low profits or may incur losses, and they have limited potential for future growth. The standard strategic advice for "Dogs" is often to divest or liquidate them.

A. Cow: This refers to "Cash Cows," which have a high market share in a low-growth market, not a low share.

B. Cat: This term is not a standard category within the Boston Box (BCG Matrix) framework.

D. Goat: This term is not a standard category within the Boston Box (BCG Matrix) framework.

1. Kiechel

W. (2010). The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World. Harvard Business Press. In Chapter 7

the book details the development of the BCG Matrix

explicitly defining "Dogs" as the quadrant for low-share

low-growth businesses.

2. University of Cambridge

Institute for Manufacturing (IfM). (n.d.). BCG growth-share matrix. In IfM Engage. Retrieved from https://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/research/dstools/bcg-growth-share-matrix/. The "Dogs" section explicitly states: "Dogs have a low market share in a mature

slow-growing industry."

3. Hedley

B. (1977). Strategy and the "Business Portfolio". Long Range Planning

10(1)

9-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-6301(77)90003-6. On page 12

Figure 3 illustrates the matrix

labeling the low growth

low share quadrant as "Dogs."