The most appropriate unit of analysis for explaining the creation of blue oceans is the strategic move—the set of managerial actions and decisions involved in making a major market- creating business offering. Compaq, for example, is considered by many people to be “unsuccessful” because it was acquired by Hewlett- Packard in 2001 and ceased to be a company. But the firm’s ultimate fate does not invalidate the smart strategic move Compaq made that led to the creation of the multi billion-dollar market in PC servers, a move that was a key cause of the company’s powerful comeback in the 1990s.