For example, it is unlikely that a start-up will succeed in taking on Wal-Mart (WMT) directly in the retailing business with an everyday low price strategy nor will a start-up office operating system maker make much headway against Microsoft (MSFT).

FORBES: HBS's Howard Stevenson: What Big Companies Can Learn from Start-ups

Huntsville is neither a hub for a major airline, nor home to a low-cost carrier.

WSJ: Why It Costs So Much to Fly From These Airports

Nor does the market for low-carbohydrate products necessarily depend on the continuing success of the Atkins diet.

ECONOMIST: Dieting

Her low-key agenda for 2011 will bring neither salvation nor doom.

ECONOMIST: German politics

Nor is the bustle confined to low-tech industries.

ECONOMIST: How to remake a city

As emerging economies push the prices of commodities up and those of manufactured goods down, consumer-price inflation is no longer a reflection of domestic monetary conditions, nor is low inflation a guarantor of economic stability.

ECONOMIST: A view from an economist at HSBC