Most crystal growth processes involve many competing mechanisms, all of which can affect the observed morphology evolution. This paper provides a framework for understanding growth competition and determining which mechanisms dominate the morphology under different conditions. The approach is based upon the development of a generalized growth law combined with asymptotic analysis. Next, we show how this model unifies many of the physical processes that are known to be of importance in film growth. Next, we provide a graph theoretic method for analyzing growth competition and identifying the morphology-determining processes and parameters. As an example, we apply the present approach to the case of metalorganic chemical vapor deposition of GaN. Finally, we examine how the mechanisms that control morphology evolution change as the crystal grows larger. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.