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Firms must correctly identify and analyze the nature of their strategic environments, their strategic oppurtunities and problems, and, formulate the precise strategy sets for corporate strategy for accomplishing the chosen organizational objectives and goals. This articles reports on a survey. Chief executives of industrial corporations provided their insights and experience (see Appendix I) and the findings are analyzed for the implications for other practising chief executives. The nature of environment which is strategic to a particular firm has considerable influence upon the firm's choice of strategies. The correct understanding of this influence is critical to the firm's organizational effectiveness. Only after a correct understanding can the chief executive formulate the precise mix of strategies and meld them in the strategy sets of the corporate strategy. The major findings indicate that the levels of difficulty experienced in accomplishing firm's objectives and goals depend upon the perceived nature of complexity, unpredictability and dynamism of the firm's strategic environments. The levels of clarity on strategic issues also depend upon these same attributes of environments. The formulation of strategy sets of corporate strategy are indicative of the ways by which the chief executive and his management team expect the firm to achieve its major objectives and goals by monitoring the strategy sets to keep in tune with the changing realities of the firm's strategic environments. General management, marketing and finance, were the vital group strategies, followed by production and research and development. External relations, personnel and procurement were the least important strategies. Firms operating in simple and stable environments experienced the least difficulty in achieving corporate goals, while firms in dynamic and complex environments experienced the greatest difficulty.

This empirical study has derived data from 295 U.S. chief executive officers for analyzing what they perceived to be the different strategic influence-mixes (or priority-mixes) of organizational fu...

This study has analyzed how 295 chief executive officers formulated their overall corporate strategy. The analyses reveal the insights of the practising chief executive officers about the strategic mixes of functions (marketing, finance, production, etc.) and the strategic configurations of functions which they perceived strategic for the accomplishment of their particular firm's major objectives and goals. The web of interrelationship among primary and supportive functions (i.e. configuration of functions) provides a different approach to the study of overall corporate strategy.

The experience and arts of 295 Chief Executive Officers have been utilized for the study's findings. The analyses suggest that a firm's effective strategic-mix of major organizational functions would depend upon the nature of the particular circumstances which the organization faces. The different organizational settings are formed in the study and the effective strategic-mix of organizational functions have been statistically formulated on the basis of the Chief Executive Officers' judgement of what constitutes the effective strategic-mix of functions for their firm's overall corporate strategy. The relative influences of the General Management function and the functional managements (Marketing, Finance, Production, R & D, etc.) upon the overall corporate strategy have been the inputs for the derivation of the effective strategic-mix of functions. Environment, technology and firm-size have been considered for the formation of the different organizational settings. The study's findings not only provide what the different strategic-mixes for the different organizational settings are but also provide a working analytical framework for comprehensive analyses for the identification of the functions critical to the accomplishment of the overall corporate objectives and goals.

Introduction International marketing activities of firms continue to assume increasing importance in the world economy. Firms of all sizes and backgrounds, especially in the industrialised countries, exhibit a greater degree of willingness to respond to attractive opportunities in international markets and extend their marketing activities to one or more national markets. Consequently, the decision‐making processes which surround these international marketing activities and the prevailing managerial styles have been the subject of limited but significant research in several advanced economies. This article will attempt to review and interpret the pertinent literature, drawn from studies of international decision‐making in different environments, for the purpose of developing a coherent understanding of the subject matter. In particular, we offer four proportions on the basis of our research and evaluation in this area. These propositions relate to: (a) motivations of firms for engaging in international marketing; (b) subjective nature of international marketing decision‐making; (c) decision‐making modes which apply to international marketing; and (d) the nature of decision‐making over the firm's internationalisation process. The article is organised around these propositions.