What business-level strategy is employed by competitors expanding through mergers and acquisitions?

The choice of consolidation as the business-level strategy utilized by competitors expanding through mergers and acquisitions is accurate because consolidation typically involves companies joining together to strengthen their market position, enhance their resources, and increase their competitiveness. This strategy often allows firms to achieve economies of scale, reduce competition, and gain access to new markets or customer bases.

In the context of mergers and acquisitions, consolidation is a method to combine the strengths of both companies. By merging or acquiring other firms, businesses can eliminate redundancies, share best practices, and leverage complementary capabilities. This approach can lead to a more powerful entity that can compete more effectively in the marketplace.

While diversification, cost leadership, and market penetration are important strategies in their own right, they do not specifically address the context of mergers and acquisitions. Diversification involves entering new markets or offering new products, cost leadership focuses on becoming the lowest-cost producer in the industry, and market penetration aims at increasing market share within existing markets. Consolidation, however, is directly related to the process of merging and acquiring firms, making it the most relevant choice in this scenario.