Las Vegas Sands Corporation in Macau

This study sought to determine the strategy that allowed the Las Vegas Sands
Corporation (LVS) to attain its leading status in the casino industry and to gain insight
whether this status would continue given (i) the passing of the LVS founder, Sheldon
Adelson, in January 2021, (ii)the sell-off of the company's Las Vegas properties early in
2022, and (iii) the firm's greater sensitivity to events in China caused by the company's
increased reliance for most of its customers on the mainland China market. The study first
identified the nature of the LVS competitive advantages when Adelson was directing the firm and then assessed whether these had been adversely impacted due to changes in the firm's markets, management or strategy.

The study relied initially on the work of David Baron, Professor of Political Economy
and Strategy at Stanford University who as early as 1981 advanced the view that corporate
strategy needed to be divided in a Marketing Strategy (MS) and a Non-Market Strategy
(NMS). The NMS component for LVS was critically important since government determined
who could acquire a Macau casino concession and what level of visas would be provided to
Mainland China gamblers to fill the Macau casinos. The key question became the nature of
Adelson's Political Effectiveness as determined by the NMS he directed towards the China
market. To resolve this issue, we adopted the Wellner & Lakotta proposal to extend Porter's
Five Forces analytical framework by two additional dimensions, Government Interventors and Complementor Organizations. We concluded that it was highly likely that Goldman
Sachs, the long-term financial backer of Sheldon Adelson, played a significant if not the
major role in the success Adelson was able to achieve in the Greater China market.