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This paper uses a new (PIMS) research data base to identify the mobility barriers--the factors associated with sustained intraindustry profit differentials--in a cross-section of industries. The exercise suggests that differentiation-related factors play more of a role in generating intraindustry profit differentials than do cost-related ones. It also indicates that differentiation-related advantages tend to be absorbed into fatter margins and (in some instances) larger market shares, while cost-related advantages are taken primarily in the form of increases in market share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the progress of the strategy field towards developing a truly dynamic theory of strategy. It separates the theory of strategy into the causes of superior performance at a given period in time (termed the cross-sectional problem) and the dynamic process by which competitive positions are created (termed the longitudinal problem). The cross-sectional problem is logically prior to a consideration of dynamics, and better understood. The paper then reviews three promising streams of research that address the longitudinal problem. These stilt fall short of exposing the true origins of competitive success. One important category of these origins, the local environment in which a firm is based is described. Many questions remain unanswered, however, and the paper concludes with challenges for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Game theory has not been applied much to business strategy. I review some criticism of the game-theoretic approach which inhibits its application, and mention some others. The common criticism that game-theoretic models assume too much rationality is often wrong because (i) some games require little rationality to compute equilibria; and (ii) players may reach an equilibrium by communicating, adapting, or evolving to it rather than by calculating it. However, other criticisms can be forceful: Game theory is hard to use and test, it threatens to explain anything, it generates customized models of local settings rather than general regularities, and it offers only part of the advice a manager needs. Nonetheless, game theory could be a fruitful source of ideas and testable implications for strategy, requiring more fine-grained, longitudinal studies sensitive to interactions between structural variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the potential usefulness of game-theoretic modeling for the development of theory in strategic management. It is argued that there is significant potential for the development of 'metaphorical' models that capture the broad qualitative features of settings involving strategic interactions. The paper discusses the positive attributes of mathematical modeling, the nature and role of game-theoretic modeling, and its potential for contributing to empirical work and to providing advice to managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years there has been worldwide interest in 'privatization' and transferring government department functions to quasi-autonomous agencies. This paper presents the results of a study of 10 organizations in the U.K. which underwent changes in their organizational status within government or which crossed the public-private boundary. The focus of the study is the impact of these organizational status changes on financial performance measured using a set of standard financial ratios. These ratios did not provide a consistent set of statistically significant results. Organizational status changes in the direction of privatization do not appear to guarantee improved performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the relationship between strategic management and economics. It introduces the special issue on this same topic by providing a guide to the eight papers contained in the special issue, and it offers the guest editors viewpoints on the contributions of each discipline to the other. The essay notes the major contribution from economics has been primarily from the industrial organization literature, with promises of important gains to be made from the 'new' economics as it breaks away from the neoclassical theory of the firm. Contributions from strategic management to economics are noted. Areas for further research utilizing the relationship between strategic management and economics are also indicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porter's Competitive Advantage of Nations is an important book which bridges the gap between strategic management and international economics while contributing substantially to both. Porter's analysis of the impact of national environment on international competitive performance demonstrates the potential for the theory of competitive strategy to rescue international economics from its slide into refined irrelevance, while simultaneously broadening the scope of the theory of competitive strategy to encompass both the international dimension and the dynamic context of competition. Nevertheless, the breadth and relevance of Porter's analysis have been achieved at the expense of precision and determinancy. Concepts are often ill defined, theoretical relationships poorly specified, and empirical data chosen selectively and interpreted subjectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mintzberg's (1990) critique of the 'design school' of strategic management is evaluated on two criteria: methodological soundness and factual veracity. The critique is found to be deficient on both criteria. Mintzberg's own proposal for the basic principles of strategic management is critiqued using the same criteria. It is found that the exposition is deficient methodologically and that Mintzberg's descriptive and prescriptive assertions are at variance with facts observable in the current practice of strategic management. The variance is found to be due to several factors: lack of coherence in Mintzberg's presentation; his use of a definition of strategy which is at variance with the current practice of management, his failure to differentiate between prescriptive and descriptive statements; and his failure to define the context for his prescriptions. Using recent empirical research results on strategic success behaviors, Mintzberg's model is placed in a limited but important context in which it is a valid prescription for successful strategic behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a response to a critique by Igor Ansoff on the article "The Design School: Reconsidering the Basic Premises of Strategic Management," by the author. In replying to Ansoff's critique, the author states that Ansoff focuses on the planning school of thought behind strategy formation and not on the design school of thought, which he intended. The author feels that there are two important differences between the two. First, the planning school focuses on the chief executive as the creator of strategy, while the design school focuses on the staff. Second, they each look at strengths and weaknesses of a firm differently. Ansoff also says the author's original piece lacks sufficient case studies to back up his point, but the author feels his evidence is able to stand on their own.

Prior empirical research has documented a large cross-sectional correlation between the level of executive pay and firm size. In contrast, this paper examines the association between percentage changes in executive compensation and percentage changes in organizational size. We analyze compensation and size data for executives at several levels of the corporate hierarchy for a sample of 303 firms. Our results indicate that the correlation between compensation and size is much smaller, although still statistically significant, in changes than in levels. This suggests that changes in an executive's compensation are not primarily driven by changes in organizational size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different perspectives of strategic decision-making and outcomes have been advanced in the literature. Among those are the rational normative, external control, and strategic choice models. The current research examined hypothesized effects of factors associated with these three perspectives on strategic acquisition decisions. Strong support was found for the rational/analytical normative choice perspective with objective criteria explaining the greatest amount of total explained variance in evaluation of target firms. However, industry and executive characteristics also produced main effects on target firm evaluations. Furthermore, the strategic decision models were found to vary by industry and executive characteristics of age, educational degree type, amount and type of work experience, and level (CEO and below). The results suggest that strategic decision models are quite complex with significant implications for future research and for strategic decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While work in the field of global strategic management has largely focused on defining the content of effective global strategies and on prescribing winning strategic moves for multinationals, this research argues the importance of the process through which global strategies are generated, in particular the perceived procedural justice of that process. Drawing on the theoretical heritage of justice-based research, this study first explored the meaning of procedural justice by an investigation of the specific criteria used by subsidiary top managers to define what they perceive to be a fair process in global strategy-making. Second, the importance of procedural justice was assessed by an examination of its effects on the higher-order attitudes of commitment, trust, and social harmony as well as on the lower-order attitude of outcome satisfaction in subsidiary top management. One of the central conclusions of the research is that the procedural justice of the global strategy generation process indeed affects commitment, trust, and social harmony as well as outcome satisfaction in subsidiary top management, and hence provides a potentially powerful but, as yet, unexplored avenue for mobilizing the multinational's global network of subsidiaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research using managers' attributions for good and poor performance in annual reports has repeatedly demonstrated that management takes credit for good outcomes. However, there is disagreement about whether this pattern of attributions reflects, attempts to manage impressions in stakeholders or biased perceptions on the part of management and whether it is associated with increases or decreases in future performance. In this study, attributions in letters to shareholders in the annual reports of public utilities were analyzed. The results showed the same general pattern of attributions as was found in previous studies. However, the relationship between this pattern of attributions and performance (earnings per share growth) was generally negative. Implications of these results for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous authors have argued for the need to study the process of strategic decision making. In the present study a judgement capturing methodology is employed, to identify the specific structures of decision models and simplification heuristics in a series of strategic investment decisions. Implications of the results and suggestions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the role that mergers and acquisitions may play in the disciplining of entrenched and inefficient managers. The relationship between a company's performance history and its subsequent top management turnover is assessed for a sample of target companies, their parents, and a control group of companies not involved in merger and acquisition activity. The results reveal that target company top management turnover is higher than 'normal' in the 2 years immediately following a merger or acquisition, but there is no relationship between previous target company performance and its subsequent top management turnover. Further analyses indicate that first-year target company turnover rates are associated with a history of relatively poor parent company performance, while second-year turnover rates are associated with a history of relatively good parent company performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note is a follow-up on two others, published in 1987 and 1989. A sample of tenured business policy scholars, with significant track records in publishing, rated key management journals with respect to their appropriateness as outlets for scholarly research in the business policy field. The results of the survey are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to expand the discussion of the 'state-of-the-science' in strategy research. We critically examine the role that theory plays in strategic research, and describe the principles underlying good theory. From a philosophy of science perspective, we argue that: (1) both inductive and deductive methods are valid ways of generating theory; (2) the falsificationist perspective provides an inadequate model for describing the process of theory testing; and (3) managers, researchers, public policy-makers, the popular press, and the public at large all have important roles to play in the knowledge development process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of networks is attracting considerable attention. One of the difficulties of such studies is that techniques of analysis, concepts, and models developed in a variety of disciplines are used. The dangers of using the work of other disciplines are illustrated by considering the way in which the concept of transaction costs has been used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reanalyzes Miller and Friesen's (1984a) life cycle data by statistically assessing their conclusions regarding the life cycle imperative. Three separate models were tested: a three-phase model, a four-phase model and a five-phase model. Using the del procedure for the prediction analysis of cross-classification tables, a sensitivity analysis showed that there is support for the life cycle progression hypothesis, but only when firms that stay in the same phase are not treated as errors. When firms that stay the same are increasingly weighted as errors, del values drop significantly. In general, the three- and four-phase models show better support for the life cycle hypothesis than the five-phase model originally used by Miller and Friesen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous literature on competitive strategies for new ventures differs significantly on the appropriate domain breadth for new ventures, niche versus aggressive coverage. While this study does not address normatively the appropriateness of either approach, it reveals eight distinct 'archetypes' of competitive strategy for entry with both niche and broad strategies represented. In this study 247 new venture CEOs from the information processing industry were asked to describe their venture's competitive strategy for entry using twenty-six competitive methods. Factor and subsequent cluster analysis uncovered these eight different 'archetypes': (1) aggressive growth via commodity type products to numerous markets with small customer orders; (2) aggressive growth via price competitive new products to large customers; (3) aggressive growth with narrow, special products priced competitively to a few larger buyers; (4) controlled growth with broad product range to many markets and extensive backward integration; (5) controlled growth via premium priced products sold directly to consumers; (6) limited growth in small niches offering a superior product and high customer service; (7) average growth via steady development of new channels, brand/name ID, and heavy promotion; and (8) limited growth selling infrequently purchased products to numerous markets with some forward integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of recent consensus-performance research have been equivocal. Substantive and methodological issues are examined to suggest reasons for this equivocality. Top management team composition, structure, and decision processes are proposed as antecedents to the consensus-performance relationship. An argument is developed for a curvilinear aggregate consensus-performance relationship, moderated by environmental dynamism. A model and associated propositions arc advanced to further descriptive and normative theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two competing models of corporate boards are presented. Management control proposes that the board is a rubber stamp for management, and plays a minor role in strategic management, white resource dependence asserts that the board is a tool used to manage environmental uncertainty. A structural model was developed to determine whether corporate boards respond to different types of environmental uncertainly, using data on 147 companies from nine industry groups. It was found that boards tended to be smaller in a more uncertain environment, while having an increased number of interlocks. This relationship was stronger in high-performing firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality ratings of strategic management journals by experts correlate closely with objective quality measures of current article impact and cumulative journal influence. In part, journal quality seems determined by editors' research stature. Over 12 years, scholarly influence of strategic management periodicals has grown nearly three-fold, as two new journals directed to conceptual development of management as a whole have risen to prominence. Expansion of strategic management research and growth of its influence may be in response to challenges posed by the continuing crisis of managerial and business performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study argues for greater research attention to the issue of changing generic strategies over time. The study proposes two sources of theoretical tension relating to changing strategies: (1) the notion of equally viable generic strategies versus particularly appropriate strategy/environment combinations, and (2) the relative influence of process (ability to change strategies) versus content (desire to change strategies) issues. Questions relating to these tensions are then examined empirically in an industry-specific analysis of the likelihood, direction, and performance implications of an organization's changing its strategy in response to an environmental shift. The findings suggest that changes in generic strategy are not rare, and that organizations do not perceive generic strategies to be equally viable in different environments across time. Performance differences were also found across generic strategies, but not between firms that changed their strategy versus those that did not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Established firms face the challenge of managing entrepreneurial strategies in order to respond effectively to major environmental changes. This paper uses a simulation methodology to explore the effectiveness of several entrepreneurial strategies in established organizations when they are faced with a fundamental restructuring of their environment. The simulated organizations are characterized by high and low levels of entrepreneurial activity and three types of entrepreneurial strategies: fixed, imitative, and adaptive. The behavior of these organizations is guided by the assumptions of an organizational learning model. The results of the simulation indicate that, given the assumptions of a learning model, there are several lessons that established organizations should consider in managing entrepreneurial strategy. First, there are important organizational implications under different levels of ambiguity. Second, lessons learned from past experience can often result in learning traps when the environment changes. Finally, conceptualizing organizations as characterized by different entrepreneurial strategies and different levels of entrepreneurship provides a theoretically useful description of differential outcomes in terms of performance, growth, and the probability of failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of social contracting strategies by independent and corporate entrepreneurs in acquiring resources for new ventures. Venture managers in both independent start-ups and corporate ventures use social contracting as a means to resource cooptation--an approach to resource acquisition which is especially suited to the particular constraints of new ventures. The analysis highlights potential obstacles to social contracting strategies for the corporate entrepreneur and presents a set of formal testable propositions which emerge from this perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate entrepreneurship seems to many entrepreneurship scholars a contradiction in terms. This paper represents an attempt to bridge that gap. This is done by, first, reviewing the literature on entrepreneurship, trying to summarize it in a few major themes. Second, a view of entrepreneurship is proposed that facilitates the application of the previous findings to the field of corporate entrepreneurship. Finally, a series of propositions are developed, as instances of the kind of research that can be pursued by following the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction to the June, 1990 Summer Special Issue by the guest editors of the publication. The issue focuses on the state of theory, methods, and findings in corporate entrepreneurship research. The idea of corporate entrepreneurship was proposed for two major reasons; management personnel have recognized the need for increased entrepreneurial activity in large companies and more research has been focusing on organizational changes within big businesses. The editors say this special issue has been created in an attempt to draw more attention to this aspect of the field.

In recent years lawsuits against corporate directors have increased dramatically. Moreover, many critics feel that with current shifts toward greater insider representation, the number will rise still more. This study examines the relationship between board composition and shareholder suits. The results indicate that, when compared to a control group, boards sued for failing to maintain their fiduciary responsibilities tended to have a greater proportion of inside directors. There was, however, no significant relationship between composition and suit outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article surveys theories of merger motives and relates them to prescriptions for merger strategies. The theories of merger motives can be classified into seven groups. Those theories arguing with private information, managerial empire-building or process influences are better supported by evidence than those tracing mergers back to efficiency gains or monopoly power. The explanations of mergers in terms of raider activity or macroeconomic disturbances carry the least plausibility. Strategy authors have discussed mergers with respect to the choice of acquisition mode, entry mode, and integration mode. The prescriptions on all three topics are dominated by the efficiency theory of mergers. For this reason they are dangerous guides for participants in merger processes. On the other hand they provide an efficient language for communicating one's position. The research in merger motives should be redirected from the efficiency theory to explanations that build on decision processes, conflicting goals, and ambiguous private information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategic management literature suggests a relationship between systematic risk and the relatedness of merging firms. This is tested for a sample of 120 large mergers by controlling for the systematic risk of the target firm, correcting for possible problems of heteroskedasticity, and estimating shifts in risk over daily as well as monthly time horizons. Finally, the influence of leverage is considered. The findings highlight a performance distinction between corporate diversification and stockholder diversification in instances of related and unrelated mergers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results of a study investigating the strategic involvement of middle-level managers in 20 organizations. The results suggest that involvement in the formation of strategy is associated with improved organizational performance. Consensus among middle-level managers, defined as strategic understanding and commitment, is related to involvement in the strategic process but not to organizational performance. Implications for research and the management of the strategic process are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of strategic groups has been accepted as an important unit of analysis in understanding competitive strategy (Porter, 1980; McGee and Thomas, 1986; Hatten and Hatten. 1987). This study builds upon previous research (Hatten et al.. 1978: McGee and Thomas, 1986: Harrigan, 1985; Cool, 1985; Cool and Schendel, 1987, 1988) and provides a general framework for the formation of strategic groups based upon important aspects of firm strategy. This framework is applied to the insurance industry over the 1970-84 time period and strategic implications are drawn. The empirical findings demonstrate that some performance differences exist among strategic groups, and also indicate that the structure of strategic groups (both in terms of the number, and the membership) changes over time. The use of this framework for understanding competitive positioning and developing dynamic theories of strategic group movement is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A taxonomy of managerial goals in mergers and acquisitions is developed through a cluster analysis of data from interviews with merger and acquisition practitioners. These clusters of objectives overlap with some objectives cited for mergers and acquisitions in the academic literature, but the correspondence is not complete. Further analysis shows that different types of mergers and acquisitions are characterized by different managerial objectives. The implications of this research for the development of a contingency model of the relationship between managerial objectives and mergers and acquisitions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The positive performance impact of a coalignment between the environment and strategy of a business is an important theoretical proposition in strategic management. In spite of its importance and intuitive appeal, the extent of empirical support is equivocal and riddled with problems of conceptualizing and testing for coalignment. This paper evaluates alternate approaches to testing such a proposition and argues in favor of specifying coalignment as 'profile deviation', which states that coalignment is the degree to which strategic resource deployments adhere to an 'ideal profile' for a given environment. Subsequently, this proposition is tested across two time periods, and eight distinct environments in two different samples drawn from the PIMS data base. Results, which were generally robust across the two periods, strongly support the proposition of a positive performance impact of environment-strategy coalignment. Implications and research directions are developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the literature on strategic controls. It summarizes the main theoretical arguments that have been put forward for establishing strategic control systems, and contrasts these arguments with evidence that suggests that few companies in fact have a strategic control system in place. The paper then identifies some of the difficulties that may be associated with establishing a strategic control system, points up issues that require further empirical research, and suggests a framework for exploring a contingency theory concerning the sorts of businesses in which strategic control systems would be most and least valuable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of authors argue that research in the organizational sciences must produce results that are both rigorous and relevant. These results should go beyond the obvious, yielding unexpected variation in our understanding of organizational phenomena. A recent paper published in this journal by the authors reported the results of a laboratory experiment examining the effect of several psychological influences on strategic decisions. This note reports the results of a survey in which executives and MBA sudents were asked to predict the results of the experiment. Although the respondent predictions were consistent, their overall set of predictions was inaccurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper lays the foundation for building a dynamic theory of the impact of process innovation upon competitive strategies. An innovation is tracked over two and a half decades to observe changing patterns in competition resulting from ongoing innovation development, emerging complementary technologies, and expanding use. The study finds that the innovation created competitive opportunities and threats for both firms that adopted it and those that did not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversification has emerged as a central topic of research in strategic management. Although this topic has been widely and intensively studied by scholars from other areas such as industrial organization economics, financial economics, organization theory, and marketing, a synthesis of these diverse streams of research is lacking. This paper attempts such a synthesis with a view to fostering further strategic management research in this area by taking a multi-disciplinary perspective on diversification. A wide-ranging search of the literature led to the development of an overarching re.search framework that facilitates the classification of a vast body of literature. Proceeding from the framework, a critique of the literature is performed with a particular emphasis on studies by strategic management researchers. Five key conceptual and methodological problems are identified and discussed. Suggestions are offered for future research on diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two important business-level strategic typologies were systematically evaluated, analyzed and compared in this study: Porter's Overall Cost Leadership. Differentiation, Focus, and 'Stuck in the Middle' generic competitive strategies, and Miles and Snow's Defender, Prospector, Analyzer, and Reactor types of organizational adaptation. On the basis of strategic theory, and following a pilot study, 31 strategic variables were evaluated by judges on a seven-point maximum-minimum scale, for each strategy, within its typology. Analysis of variances and concordance among judges regarding the ranking of the strategies on each variable were examined, and a strategic profile was built for each strategy. Proximities between strategies of the two typologies were analyzed using monotonic multidimensional scaling. The analysis indicated similarities and differences between the two typologies. A synthesis of the two typologies is suggested along two dimensions: internal consistency of the strategy, and level of proactiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note is a follow-up on one published in 1987. A sample of tenured business policy scholars, with significant track records in publishing, rated key management journals with respect to their appropriateness as outlets for scholarly research in the business policy field. The results of the survey are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of meta-analysis allows us to draw stronger inferences from past research than are possible from traditional literature. In this paper the general purpose of meta-analysis is discussed, and it is used to resolve a dispute regarding a collection of studies in strategic management dealing with devil's advocacy and dialectical inquiry. The use of meta-analysis leads to different conclusions from those drawn in an earlier review of these studies. At the end of the paper the limitations and potential uses of meta-analysis in strategic management are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategy research has not shown a consistent relationship between consensus in the top management team and organizational performance. This paper attempts to explain these findings by providing a description of how the strategic process affects consensus. Synoptic and incremental processes are compared in terms of their effects on the scope, content, and degree of consensus. In addition, two dimensions of consensus, shared understanding and commitment, are considered. Implications for research are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of diversification strategy on risk and return in diversified firms. Following an assessment of previous research on strategic risk, relationships between risk, return, and diversification strategy are hypothesized. Regression analysis shows that differences in risk-return performance among diversified firms are more closely associated with structural factors associated with markets and businesses than with the particular diversification strategy chosen. Returns also influence the choice of diversification strategies which, in turn, do not get rewarded with higher profits. A curvilinear risk-return relationship is also observed which is consistent with previous theoretical suggestions. Implications for the strategic management of risk are then drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a conceptual framework that links manufacturing to business unit strategy and focuses on developing the notion of 'generic manufacturing strategies' at the strategic business unit (SBU) level. Specifically, an explicit conceptual link is drawn between 'generic' business unit strategies and 'generic' functional structures in manufacturing. It is proposed that the alternate manufacturing structures implicitly represent 'generic manufacturing strategies'. Drawing on ideas and concepts from the business strategy literature and manufacturing literature the paper links Porter's generic strategy framework to a complementary manufacturing structure framework that uses three dimensions: process structure complexity, product line complexity, and organizational scope. Viewed from different perspectives, the 'manufacturing contingency theory' concepts presented implicitly in the paper can be viewed as an extension of classic research on the interdependence between strategy and structure. The frameworks developed here provide a partial synthesis of knowledge in the broader disciplines of engineering and management without sacrificing academic rigor and practitioner relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to encourage discussion on the 'state-of-the-science' in strategy content research. We present a view of an interactive research process and argue that strategy content research would benefit from (1) more carefully developed theoretical work; (2) more theory-driven data analysis; and (3) less emphasis on the immediate applicability of results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategic managers have been found to use sophisticated tactics to implement strategic plans, but seem to limit their effectiveness by applying them indiscriminately. A contingency framework that uses situational constraints, such as the manager's freedom to act and need for consultation, is developed to select among tactics preferred by practitioners. The framework was tested using 50 episodes of strategic planning. There was a 94 percent success rate when the implementation tactic recommended by the framework was used, and a 29 percent success rate when another (non-recommended) tactic was applied, suggesting that following the framework's prescriptions may improve the success rate for strategic plan implementation. The implications of this research for practicing managers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tested the theory that the characteristics of British chief executives would be different from that of the subordinate top management team from which they emanated. The study focused upon variations in experiences over three sets of variables: corporate influences; e.g. tenure, mobility, functional experience, international exposure; domestic influences; e.g. education, family influence; and their self-concept; e.g. aspiration levels, executive success traits. Substantial differences emerged between the two groups across all sets of variables, particularly within the corporate category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of Prahalad and Bettis's concept of dominant logic is in emphasizing business relatedness at the strategic rather than the operational level. By examining dominant logic in relation to the functions and systems of corporate management, it is possible to operationalize the concept of dominant logic and identify the key components of relatedness at the strategic level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between planning process sophistication and the financial performance of a select group of small firms in a growth industry. Multivariate analysis of variance is used to identify statistically significant differences between firms that employ sophisticated plans and those that do not. The results support previous research on strategic planning and financial performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]