Making Strategy Work: A Literature Review on the Factors influencing Strategy Implementation
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paper_title: A short, practical guide to implementing strategy

paper_content:

Purpose – Most strategies stumble in the implementation phase. This article outlines a market‐validated process, and practical guidelines, for optimizing implementation. The primary audience is mid‐level and senior executives charged with the responsibility for implementing strategy.Design/methodology/approach – This implementation process focuses on the critical timeframe immediately following formal strategy selection, when broad objectives need to be translated into specific actions, schedules, budgets, and metrics. The approach is to capture the key decisions in an accessible, common format, and to deploy this tool consistently throughout the organization to monitor and guide implementation. Dozens of firms across a wide array of industries have used the methodology, which derives from two decades of senior operating and strategy consulting experience.Findings – Strategy development receives significant attention and resources, but implementation is often neglected, with disastrous consequences. Using...
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paper_title: The Eclectic Roots of Strategy Implementation Research

paper_content:

Abstract The researcher interested in strategy implementation faces a formidable challenge. Although this area has drawn many calls for research attention, there is not a deep and cohesive body of prior literature on which to draw in developing new efforts. This study proposes that through taking a broadened perspective of the nature of implementation, a range of valuable insights for the implementation researcher is available. First, various conceptualizations and definitions of implementation that have been proposed are considered. Next, a broad range of literature fields that have direct and indirect implications for the study of strategy implementation are reviewed. This review is organized around a framework that distinguishes between structural and interpersonal process views of implementation. Insights for the implementation researcher are highlighted. Finally, future directions for implementation research are proposed.
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paper_title: OBSTACLES TO STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION IN A NATIONALIZED INDUSTRY[1]

paper_content:

Implementation of policy or strategy in the public sector has attracted a growing interest in the U.S.A. (Bardach, 1977; Derthick, 1972; Pressman and Wildavsky, 1973) and more recently in the U.K. (Dunsire, 1978; Levitt, 1980; S.S.R.C., 1979). the emphasis in this stream of work is on centre-periphery relationships and their respective uses of power and authority and on interorganizational relationships. This emphasis probably stems from the overt independence of local Government and some other public bodies from central Government in their appointment, composition, manner of carrying out their duties and, in resource terms, raising revenue. In large ‘commercial’ organizations, centre-periphery relations have tended to be viewed more in terms of the formal organizational structure and have attracted less research attention. ::: ::: ::: ::: A complementary but distinct stream of research, offering many parallels and useful insights into management science/O.R. implementation, has grown from the early work of Churchman and Scheinblatt (1965) - for example Schultz and Slevin (1975), Doktor et al. (1979). This second stream concentrates more on technical, operational aspects and largely ignores power relations which are assumed to correspond closely to the formal organization structure. A third stream of research has emerged from the strategic management literature (Ansoff, 1979; Anthony, 1965; Lewin, 1981; Steiner and Miner, 1977). Here the emphasis has been on budgeting and control though the scope has broadened to embrace e.g. considerations of power. A fourth related contributor, drawn on mainly by the policy and strategy streams and largely ignored in the public policy literature, is the organizational behaviour literature with its work on the exercise of power in organizations (for example, Cyert and March, 1963; Mumford and Pettigrew, 1975). ::: ::: ::: ::: In the study to be described here, which predates privatization, insights have been drawn from, and relationships established between, each of these streams of work, none of which has yet produced a comprehensive theory of implementation; regretably it remains beyond the scope of this study to do so. Hypotheses have emerged from the study which are offered as a contribution to theory buiding in implementation. It is hoped that they, in combination with findings from other research, will bring nearer the goal of a comprehensive theory of implementation as a guide to planning and action applicable to both the public and private sectors. ::: ::: ::: ::: While there have been some empirical studies of strategy formulation, little field research has been undertaken on implementation (Bardach, 1977; Hofer, 1976; Schultz and Slevin, 1975).
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paper_title: The Eclectic Roots of Strategy Implementation Research

paper_content:

Abstract The researcher interested in strategy implementation faces a formidable challenge. Although this area has drawn many calls for research attention, there is not a deep and cohesive body of prior literature on which to draw in developing new efforts. This study proposes that through taking a broadened perspective of the nature of implementation, a range of valuable insights for the implementation researcher is available. First, various conceptualizations and definitions of implementation that have been proposed are considered. Next, a broad range of literature fields that have direct and indirect implications for the study of strategy implementation are reviewed. This review is organized around a framework that distinguishes between structural and interpersonal process views of implementation. Insights for the implementation researcher are highlighted. Finally, future directions for implementation research are proposed.
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paper_title: Strategy Implementation Tactics as Response to Organizational, Strategic, and Environmental Imperatives **

paper_content:

Based on previous literature in the fields of strategy implementation and leadership research tactics for strategy implementation are identified. Three categories proved empirically valid in this study: autocratic tactics, participative tactics and tactics which rely on the given culture of the organization. The paper is based on the assumption that implementation in general is dependent on environmental, strategic and organizational variables. In this sense implementation tactics can be interpreted as genuine organizational behaviour. Based on a discussion of associations of implementation tactics with these variables it is hypothesized that the perception of environmental threats will lead to more autocratic tactics, whereas the existence of a formulated strategy will rather lead to more participative tactics. No such relationships are predicted for cultural tactics. A questionnaire-based measure of implementation tactics is tested in a sample of 136 Upper-Austrian firms by referring to implementation projects or strategy related issues. For a sub-sample (n=60) a moderated regression analysis on implementation tactics with measures of organizational structure, the environment, the strategy, and the interaction between environment and strategy as independent variables was performed. It shows that the use of autocratic tactics is significantly explained by environmental variables whereas participative tactics are significantly explained by the existence of a formulated strategy within the organization. For Culture as an implementation tactic only the interaction between environmental and strategic variables was a significant predictor. Implications for future theory building and empirical research into organizational behaviour in the context of strategy formulation and strategy implementation are discussed. Key words: Strategy Implementation; Implementation Tactics, Organizational Centralization, Uncertainty, Equivocality Many studies in the long tradition of organizational behaviour research could be qualified as general behavioural research, as long as they do not refer to idiosyncratic conditions within the organization. Rather then presenting new methodologies of research the aim of this paper is to seek new directions by explicitly linking behavioural inquiry to related fields in organizational research, in particular to organizational theory and to strategic management. This link is represented here through tactics of strategy implementation as behavioural patterns, which are dependent on environmental, organizational, and strategic conditions. There is still little research on strategy implementation, compared to the bulk of literature on the formulation and decision parts of the strategic process. Strategy implementation involves multiple levels of analysis which hinders the development of closed frameworks and of coherent streams of research. Consequently, researchers have taken a large diversity of perspectives on implementation (Noble, 1999). It has mainly been researched in regard to the fit between strategy and structure (e.g. Galbraith/Kazanjian 1986; Hrebaniak/Joyce 1984), building on the seminal work of Chandler (1962). This has been supplemented through studies of environmental and organizational contingencies for strategies (Damanpour 1996). A different research stream addresses implementation as a variant of leadership processes on a conceptual level (Bourgeois/Brodwin 1984) or empirically (e.g. Nutt 1986). The latter type of studies lacks explicit references to strategy content, with the exception of an empirical study using multiple case studies by Waldersee and Sheather (1996). Some studies link strategy type (Hambrick/Mason 1984; Miller/Toulouse 1986; Miller/Kets de Vries/ Toulouse 1982; Szilagy/Schweiger 1984) or implementation (Gupta/Govindarajan 1984; Govindarajan 1989; Nutt 1995) to managerial characteristics. However, there is a growing literature on the resource-based view (Wernerfelt 1989; Barney 1991) or competence-based view (German/Thomas 1997) of the firm, emphasizing the importance of organizational processes and capabilities for sustained competitive advantage. …
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paper_title: A Strategy Implementation Perspective of Market Orientation

paper_content:

The authors conceptually and empirically explore the role of market orientation in the context of strategy implementation. Specifically, market orientation plays a key role for the successful implementation of a premium product differentiation (PPD) strategy. This result is based on the empirical findings from an international study that shows the performance effect of a PPD strategy is to a significant extent mediated through the construct of market orientation. Implications for future research and managerial practice are discussed.
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paper_title: Managing strategic consensus: the foundation of effective implementation.

paper_content:

Executive Overview A frequent complaint of senior executives is that middle and operating managers fail to take the actions necessary to implement strategy. As one top manager told us. “It's been rather easy for us to decide where we wanted to go. The hard part is to get the organization to act on the new priorities.” Implementation problems of this type are often the result of poor middle management understanding and commitment to strategy. In our research we've found that relatively few middle managers articulate the same goals as their superiors. More troublesome, other researchers have found that middle managers who disagree with strategic initiatives frequently work against their implementation. This article examines an approach to implementation that focuses on the level of strategic understanding and commitment shared by managers within the organization. A framework identifying four categories of strategic consensus is introduced and used as the basis for analyzing differences in how managers perce...
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paper_title: Incorporating cognitive aids into decision support systems: the case of the strategy execution process

paper_content:

Abstract To ease the access to data bases for the casual user, a system called SMARTY has been developed as an intelligent front end to the relational data base management system SQL/DS. A user only needs to specify the data attributes and possibly their value ranges which he wants to be displayed. SMARTY will test the meaningfulness of this request for information and subsequently generate and execute the SQL statements for deriving the information from SQL relations. SMARTY is capable of extracting or aggregating detailed information in a company database. It can be regarded as an expert system on top of a relational DBMS to improve the user interface, or as a query system to a universal relation. SMARTY was written in Prolog. Both Prolog and SQL/DS are running under the IBM operating system VM/SP 3.
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paper_title: Toward a Research Agenda on Top Management Teams and Strategy Implementation

paper_content:

Abstract This paper addresses the question, "What's next in research on top management teams and strategic effectiveness?" Specifically, we focus on the relationship between top management teams and strategy implementation and suggest that strategy implementation has been a missing link between strategy and performance. A research agenda to remedy this deficit is advanced. Research into the importance of top management has a long history. Initial studies of executive leadership focused on the impact of individual CEOs or general managers (Day & Lord,1988; Gupta & Govindarajan,1984; Lieberson & O'Connor, 1972; Miller & Toulouse, 1986; Thomas, 1988). More recent studies, driven by the theoretical constructs of the "dominant coalition" (Cyert & March, 1963) and the "upper echelon" (Hambrick & Mason,1984), have focused on top management teams. The preponderance of TMT research has been heavily influenced by the decision models of the Carnegie School (Cyert & March, 1963; March & Simon, 1958). The model, as articulated by Hambrick and Mason (1984), suggests that top managers affect organizational outcomes primarily through the decisions or "strategic choices" they make, decisions that are influenced by characteristics (including the cognitive biases and values) of the decision makers. Thus, research has focused on TMT-related factors thought to influence strategic decision-making by the team. While accepting the importance of this theoretical model, we believe that the body of research based on it suffers from three limitations. First, and most importantly, the model makes a significant jump from strategic choice (or strategy formulation) to organizational outcomes. The processes by which strategic choice is implemented- processes associated with what Mintzberg (1978) called "deliberate" strategy-have received little attention. Second, alternatives to the Carnegie decision model exist. Allison ( 1969), for example, suggests organizational process and bureaucratic political models of decision making in addition to the rational policy model. Indeed, the very term "dominant coalition" (Cyert & March, 1963) implies a political decision process. One might suspect that the influence decision makers have on organizational outcomes will vary depending on which decision model-or combination of models-is operative. Third, the decision model implicit in the TMT research begs the question of possibly significant differences between influence of the TMT on the pursuit of "intended" as compared to "emergent" strategies (Mintzberg, 1978). A growing literature on empowerment, self managed teams, and leadership suggests that the role of senior executives is changing from planners and directors to coaches and supporters (c.f., Flood, Gannon & Paauwe, 1996; Manz & Sims, 1993; Smith & Sims, 1995). Thus, the very assumption that TMTs influence organizational outcomes primarily through their influence on strategy formulation may need to be reconsidered. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is two-fold. First, we summarize the major themes in the TMT literature to demonstrate the current emphasis on rational strategy formulation. Although we believe that this literature is enlightening and important, we argue that the theoretical and empirical omission of implementation requires a significant leap in logic to link TMT characteristics and behaviors to organizational outcomes. Second, we suggest a number of research questions and methodological issues to be considered in developing a program of research designed to reduce this gap in our understanding of the strategic significance of TMTs. An Overview of Recent TMT Research Our discussion of the literature follows the general framework presented in Figure 1. This model was developed from an extensive review of the theoretical and empirical literature on top management teams and is presented as an organizing framework for our discussion. …
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paper_title: A Contingency Approach to Strategy Implementation at the Business-Unit Level: Integrating Administrative Mechanisms with Strategy

paper_content:

This study focused on what is perhaps the most critical aspect of strategy implementation in large, multibusiness organizations: recognizing that different business units within the same corporation often pursue different strategies and that the administrative mechanisms that corporate headquarters use to manage those businesses should differ. This study compared the results of bivariate and systems approaches to fit. Implications of the results for theory development and managerial practice are discussed.
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paper_title: OBSTACLES TO STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION IN A NATIONALIZED INDUSTRY[1]

paper_content:

Implementation of policy or strategy in the public sector has attracted a growing interest in the U.S.A. (Bardach, 1977; Derthick, 1972; Pressman and Wildavsky, 1973) and more recently in the U.K. (Dunsire, 1978; Levitt, 1980; S.S.R.C., 1979). the emphasis in this stream of work is on centre-periphery relationships and their respective uses of power and authority and on interorganizational relationships. This emphasis probably stems from the overt independence of local Government and some other public bodies from central Government in their appointment, composition, manner of carrying out their duties and, in resource terms, raising revenue. In large ‘commercial’ organizations, centre-periphery relations have tended to be viewed more in terms of the formal organizational structure and have attracted less research attention. ::: ::: ::: ::: A complementary but distinct stream of research, offering many parallels and useful insights into management science/O.R. implementation, has grown from the early work of Churchman and Scheinblatt (1965) - for example Schultz and Slevin (1975), Doktor et al. (1979). This second stream concentrates more on technical, operational aspects and largely ignores power relations which are assumed to correspond closely to the formal organization structure. A third stream of research has emerged from the strategic management literature (Ansoff, 1979; Anthony, 1965; Lewin, 1981; Steiner and Miner, 1977). Here the emphasis has been on budgeting and control though the scope has broadened to embrace e.g. considerations of power. A fourth related contributor, drawn on mainly by the policy and strategy streams and largely ignored in the public policy literature, is the organizational behaviour literature with its work on the exercise of power in organizations (for example, Cyert and March, 1963; Mumford and Pettigrew, 1975). ::: ::: ::: ::: In the study to be described here, which predates privatization, insights have been drawn from, and relationships established between, each of these streams of work, none of which has yet produced a comprehensive theory of implementation; regretably it remains beyond the scope of this study to do so. Hypotheses have emerged from the study which are offered as a contribution to theory buiding in implementation. It is hoped that they, in combination with findings from other research, will bring nearer the goal of a comprehensive theory of implementation as a guide to planning and action applicable to both the public and private sectors. ::: ::: ::: ::: While there have been some empirical studies of strategy formulation, little field research has been undertaken on implementation (Bardach, 1977; Hofer, 1976; Schultz and Slevin, 1975).
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paper_title: The Eclectic Roots of Strategy Implementation Research

paper_content:

Abstract The researcher interested in strategy implementation faces a formidable challenge. Although this area has drawn many calls for research attention, there is not a deep and cohesive body of prior literature on which to draw in developing new efforts. This study proposes that through taking a broadened perspective of the nature of implementation, a range of valuable insights for the implementation researcher is available. First, various conceptualizations and definitions of implementation that have been proposed are considered. Next, a broad range of literature fields that have direct and indirect implications for the study of strategy implementation are reviewed. This review is organized around a framework that distinguishes between structural and interpersonal process views of implementation. Insights for the implementation researcher are highlighted. Finally, future directions for implementation research are proposed.
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paper_title: Strategy Implementation Tactics as Response to Organizational, Strategic, and Environmental Imperatives **

paper_content:

Based on previous literature in the fields of strategy implementation and leadership research tactics for strategy implementation are identified. Three categories proved empirically valid in this study: autocratic tactics, participative tactics and tactics which rely on the given culture of the organization. The paper is based on the assumption that implementation in general is dependent on environmental, strategic and organizational variables. In this sense implementation tactics can be interpreted as genuine organizational behaviour. Based on a discussion of associations of implementation tactics with these variables it is hypothesized that the perception of environmental threats will lead to more autocratic tactics, whereas the existence of a formulated strategy will rather lead to more participative tactics. No such relationships are predicted for cultural tactics. A questionnaire-based measure of implementation tactics is tested in a sample of 136 Upper-Austrian firms by referring to implementation projects or strategy related issues. For a sub-sample (n=60) a moderated regression analysis on implementation tactics with measures of organizational structure, the environment, the strategy, and the interaction between environment and strategy as independent variables was performed. It shows that the use of autocratic tactics is significantly explained by environmental variables whereas participative tactics are significantly explained by the existence of a formulated strategy within the organization. For Culture as an implementation tactic only the interaction between environmental and strategic variables was a significant predictor. Implications for future theory building and empirical research into organizational behaviour in the context of strategy formulation and strategy implementation are discussed. Key words: Strategy Implementation; Implementation Tactics, Organizational Centralization, Uncertainty, Equivocality Many studies in the long tradition of organizational behaviour research could be qualified as general behavioural research, as long as they do not refer to idiosyncratic conditions within the organization. Rather then presenting new methodologies of research the aim of this paper is to seek new directions by explicitly linking behavioural inquiry to related fields in organizational research, in particular to organizational theory and to strategic management. This link is represented here through tactics of strategy implementation as behavioural patterns, which are dependent on environmental, organizational, and strategic conditions. There is still little research on strategy implementation, compared to the bulk of literature on the formulation and decision parts of the strategic process. Strategy implementation involves multiple levels of analysis which hinders the development of closed frameworks and of coherent streams of research. Consequently, researchers have taken a large diversity of perspectives on implementation (Noble, 1999). It has mainly been researched in regard to the fit between strategy and structure (e.g. Galbraith/Kazanjian 1986; Hrebaniak/Joyce 1984), building on the seminal work of Chandler (1962). This has been supplemented through studies of environmental and organizational contingencies for strategies (Damanpour 1996). A different research stream addresses implementation as a variant of leadership processes on a conceptual level (Bourgeois/Brodwin 1984) or empirically (e.g. Nutt 1986). The latter type of studies lacks explicit references to strategy content, with the exception of an empirical study using multiple case studies by Waldersee and Sheather (1996). Some studies link strategy type (Hambrick/Mason 1984; Miller/Toulouse 1986; Miller/Kets de Vries/ Toulouse 1982; Szilagy/Schweiger 1984) or implementation (Gupta/Govindarajan 1984; Govindarajan 1989; Nutt 1995) to managerial characteristics. However, there is a growing literature on the resource-based view (Wernerfelt 1989; Barney 1991) or competence-based view (German/Thomas 1997) of the firm, emphasizing the importance of organizational processes and capabilities for sustained competitive advantage. …
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paper_title: Performance in adolescent, technology-based firms: Product strategy, implementation, and synergy

paper_content:

Abstract Based on a sample of “adolescent” firms in technology-based industries, this study analyzes the effects on performance of two aspects of product strategy-product leadership and product/market focus, two aspects of strategic implementation-stakeholder input and employee empowerment, and the interaction of product strategy and strategic implementation variables. Five aspects of performance are examined, including growth rate, R&D, profit, financial stability, and future prospects.
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paper_title: Strategy implementation and project management

paper_content:

Abstract To date, strategy implementation and project management have largely developed quite separately and independently. But there are many opportunities for cross-fertilisation which are currently under-exploited both in theory and in practice. A number of tools from strategic management, value management and from organizational change can be imported into project management to enrich traditional techniques considerably. These tools are particularly powerful when applied to complex, multi-functional projects which are entailed when attempting to turn business strategy into implementation. These tools can also be imported into mainstream project management practice.
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paper_title: Implementing marketing strategies: Developing and testing a managerial theory.

paper_content:

Implementation pervades strategic performance. It is a critical link between the formulation of marketing strategies and the achievement of superior organizational performance. Research conducted i...
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paper_title: Strategic Governance: how to assess board effectiveness in guiding strategy execution

paper_content:

Subsequent to a host of corporate corruption scandals, boards of directors are facing amplified pressure from investors, creditors and shareholders in a bid to ensure effective corporate governance of their investments. In previous research and public debate, the effectiveness of corporate governance structures has come under close scrutiny. However, boards' effectiveness in fulfilling their strategic role by guiding strategy execution mostly has been left unaddressed. Due to the high degree of secrecy and sensitivity of strategy issues, boards' effectiveness in guiding strategy execution is much more difficult to assess externally compared to structural governance issues. Against the backdrop of these difficulties and based upon insights from strategy process research, we suggest taking "strategy consistency" between a firm's resource allocation and its announced strategy as a proxy for boards' effectiveness in guiding strategy execution. In doing so, the paper contributes to extant research by going beyond structural governance issues and paying direct attention to strategic governance issues. Specifically, the paper develops a new approach and set of standard measures to assess boards' effectiveness in strategy execution. Copyright (c) 2006 The Authors; Journal compilation (c) 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
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paper_title: Strategic implementation: Five approaches to an elusive phenomenon

paper_content:

The traditional textbook approach to strategy implementation was to treat ‘implementation’ as an activity following ‘formulation’. Usually, the topic was treated as a question of organization design, where systems and structures were manipulated in concert with strategic goals. More recent views treat implementation either as an issue of gaining prior group commitment through coalitional decision-making, or as a question of total organizational involvement through a strong corporate culture. This paper reviews the evolution of these approaches, developing four models to characterize them, and suggests a fifth one, with strategy emerging in an almost-implemented form from within the firm.
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paper_title: A STUDY OF ORGANIZATIONAL 'FRAMEWORK' AND 'PROCESS' MODALITIES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF BUSINESS-LEVEL STRATEGIC DECISIONS*

paper_content:

Abstract : Based on structuration theory, organization framework and process are proposed as two modalities for implementing intended business-level strategies. A model is developed in which the components of these two modalities and related to the implementation of low cost and differentiation strategies. The implementation of fifty-seven strategies in integrated circuits, petroleum, and health care firms are used to test the research hypotheses. The findings suggest that strategy implementation in these firms utilized both framework and process structural elements, but that a different implementation gestalt characterized each strategy. Implications for strategy implementation and for structuration theory are discussed.
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paper_title: A Strategy Implementation Perspective of Market Orientation

paper_content:

The authors conceptually and empirically explore the role of market orientation in the context of strategy implementation. Specifically, market orientation plays a key role for the successful implementation of a premium product differentiation (PPD) strategy. This result is based on the empirical findings from an international study that shows the performance effect of a PPD strategy is to a significant extent mediated through the construct of market orientation. Implications for future research and managerial practice are discussed.
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paper_title: Middle management involvement in strategy and its association with strategic type: A research note

paper_content:

This paper reports the results of a study that investigated the strategic involvement of 259 middle managers in 25 organizations. Drawing from previous clinical research, a theoretical typology of middle management roles in strategy is developed. Measures for each role are derived, and the relationship between middle management strategic involvement and Miles and Snow's (1978) strategic type is examined. Results suggest the usefulness of these measures in assessing both the level and type of middle management strategic activity. In addition, the findings show that middle managers in Prospectors report significantly higher levels of upward and divergent forms of strategic involvement than those in Analyzers and Defenders. Traditionally, middle-level managers have not been considered part of the strategy process except in providing informational inputs and directing implementation. Contemporary theory and descriptions suggest, however, that middle managers regularly attempt to influence strategy and often provide the impetus for new initiatives (Burgelman, 1983a,b; Mintzberg and Waters, 1985). Bower (1970) was one of the first to recognize the contributions of middle managers: they '... are the only men [sic] in the organization who are in a position to judge whether [strategic] issues are being considered in the proper context' (297-298). More recently, empirical research has confirmed middle management's upward influence on strategic decisions (Schilit, 1987)
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paper_title: Selecting tactics to implement strategic plans

paper_content:

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 this research for practicing managers are discussed.
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paper_title: Global Strategy Implementation at the Business Unit Level: Operational Capabilities and Administrative Mechanisms

paper_content:

The study examines the impact of internationally strategy on organizational design and the influence of the organizational design on effectiveness at the business unit level. The empirical findings are based on survey responses from eighty-two business units competing in global industries. The findings are supportive of the contingency notion which suggests that business unit effectiveness is a function of the fit between the international strategy and the organizational design.
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paper_title: The Eight ‘S’s of successful strategy execution

paper_content:

Abstract As the business environment becomes more complex and more changeful, the need to reformulate strategy and/or to adjust elements of the existing strategy becomes more frequent. As a result senior executives find themselves confronted with the need to integrate a number of changes in the execution of the new or revised strategy. This dissemination and integration of execution actions is especially difficult across cross-functional activities. The ‘8 “S”s of Strategy Execution’ is a heuristic that enables senior management to more readily enact, monitor, and assess the cross functional execution of strategies, new or revised. The 8 ‘S’s model is a revision of the original McKinsey 7 ‘S’s model. The most significant change comes in the deletion of skills from the McKinsey model and the addition of reSources in its place. Furthermore, Strategic Performance has been added to the model to help focus the strategy execution effort.
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paper_title: Implementing competitive strategies at the business unit level: Implications of matching managers to strategies

paper_content:

This paper argues that, for superior performance, it is necessary to attune the choice of the general manager to the strategy of the business unit (SBU). Data from 121 SBUs indicate that SBU competitive strategy interacts with several managerial orientations (functional background, locus of control, and problem-solving style) to influence SBU effectiveness. The theoretical and practical relevance of these findings are discussed, as are directions for future research.
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paper_title: Marketing's contribution to the implementation of business strategy: an empirical analysis

paper_content:

This paper describes a study that assesses the performance implications of matching marketing strategy to business strategy. In order to conduct this study we first reviewed the literature on marketing strategy to identify its key dimensions. We then conducted a survey of 1000 senior marketing executives about the strategic marketing practices adopted in their respective firms or business units, and developed scales to describe 11 strategic marketing activities. We next performed a K-means cluster analysis using these scales to develop a taxonomy of marketing strategy types consisting of: Aggressive Marketers, Mass Marketers, Marketing Minimizers, and Value Marketers. We then observed that superior performance at the firm or SBU level was achieved when specific marketing strategy types were matched with appropriate Miles and Snow (1978) business strategy types. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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paper_title: Key success factors when implementing strategic manufacturing initiatives

paper_content:

Purpose – This paper reports the study of key success factors (KSFs) in the project management of the implementation of strategic manufacturing initiatives (SMIs). Design/methodology/approach – In order to gather the experience and knowledge of many industries, from different geographic locations, in a broad range of types and sizes of SMIs, a questionnaire-based survey of practitioners worldwide was selected as the most appropriate research method among those available. Findings – The identification of those tasks and activities that must be done well in order to succeed in the implementation of a SMI in practice. Practical implications – Practitioners focusing their attention on the KSFs identified are more likely to succeed. Once these factors have been identified, the value of benchmarking project management methodologies then comes from drawing attention to those tasks that are key to the success of the implementation of SMIs. Originality/value – The paper presents new thinking by bringing project management into the operations strategy implementation literature as an important mediating factor for success. In this context the factors that are required for successful implementation are identified.
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paper_title: Organisational communication and strategy implementation - a primary inquiry.

paper_content:

Over the last decade, organisational communication has attracted growing academic interest. Focuses on organisational communication within multi‐unit organisations in order to understand better the strategy implementation process from a communication perspective. Three hotel chains were investigated, all UK plcs with diversified business portfolios, and which were in the process of implementing a strategic initiative. The findings show that effective communication is a primary requirement of effective implementation but it does not guarantee the effectiveness of implementation.
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paper_title: Business Unit Strategy, Managerial Characteristics, and Business Unit Effectiveness at Strategy Implementation

paper_content:

Data from 58 strategic business units (SBUs) reveal that greater marketing/sales experience, greater willingness to take risk, and greater tolerance for ambiguity on the part of the SBU general manager contribute to effectiveness in the case of “build” SBUs but hamper it in the case of “harvest” SBUs.
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paper_title: Tactics of Implementation

paper_content:

This study identified implementation tactics used by managers in making planned changes by profiling 91 case studies. Analysis revealed four types of tactics, variations within these tactics, and h...
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paper_title: A Contingency Approach to Strategy Implementation at the Business-Unit Level: Integrating Administrative Mechanisms with Strategy

paper_content:

This study focused on what is perhaps the most critical aspect of strategy implementation in large, multibusiness organizations: recognizing that different business units within the same corporation often pursue different strategies and that the administrative mechanisms that corporate headquarters use to manage those businesses should differ. This study compared the results of bivariate and systems approaches to fit. Implications of the results for theory development and managerial practice are discussed.
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paper_title: Explanations from the marketing/human resources dyad for marketing strategy implementation effectiveness in service firms

paper_content:

Abstract The marketing strategy literature is often criticized for the dearth of conceptual, theoretical, and empirical studies focusing on antecedents to effective marketing strategy implementation. Despite some related research on the constituency-based theory of the firm, even less is understood concerning the interplay between functional areas on marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. We examine the marketing/human resources (HR) dyad and contribute to this limited platform of knowledge by testing a set of eight hypotheses that forms the basis of the model in which six process-based organization dimensions are considered to be related to the psychosocial outcomes of relationship effectiveness and interfunctional conflict. These, in turn, are hypothesized to impact upon the behavioral outcome of marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. The data that are used to test these relationships are generated from 230 medium and large European service-based firms. While we find that psychosocial outcomes do have important effects on marketing strategy implementation effectiveness, a paradox is observed in the effects of process-based dimensions upon psychosocial outcomes. These findings are interpreted and discussed in the context of existing literature and a number of implications are drawn.
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paper_title: Key success factors for strategy implementation in Latin America

paper_content:

Increasing competition among Latin American firms fosters more proactive processes aimed at reviewing business strategy. The research objective is to measure the impact of key variables on successful implementation of business strategy. Relying on the knowledge and experience of Latin American entrepreneurs and managers, the questions addressed include: How important is the role of the CEO and management actors? Do firms prioritize actions prior to implementing strategy? Are control and follow-up tools valued? How is a successful strategy implementation ensured? Research findings are expected to provide useful knowledge for management decision processes relating to successful implementation of business strategy.
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paper_title: Towards a strategy implementation framework

paper_content:

Aims to develop an implementation framework. Further to a critical review of previous research, ten implementation variables were identified and a conceptual framework constructed. The implementation process of a strategic decision was investigated in two international hotel groups via in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews, observations and documentation analysis. The initial conceptual framework was found to be useful as it grouped key variables together and illustrated their roles when implementing strategic decisions. Three new variables, however, emerged from the findings; namely, multiple project implementation, organisational learning and working with external companies. A revised framework was then proposed and further explanations provided. Concludes by emphasising the importance of contextual variables in implementation and dispels the strategic management notion of “fit”.
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paper_title: Strategy Implementation: The Impact of Demographic Characteristics on the Level of Support Received by Middle Managers

paper_content:

■ Middle managers of contemporary organizations play an important role in ensuring successful strategy implementation, which requires top managers to provide adequate support to them. One of the key factors determining the level of support is the demographic characteristics of middle managers. ■ This article examines the impact of a middle manager's demographic characteristics on the level of support received during strategy implementation. Factors needed for successful strategy implementation are used to measure the level of support received by middle managers in the marketing department of selected UK private companies.
---
paper_title: Implementing business unit strategies: the role of management control systems

paper_content:

This study examines in detail how the toolmakers, Sandvik Bahco have designed and used their management control system to implement their chosen differentiation strategy. Unlike most other studies in this area we have chosen to describe and analyse the control system at the management and the operational levels. The study shows that changes in the learning process at the operational level elicit a need for more, and more comprehensive, information. This means that the borderline between the control systems at the two organisational levels is beginning to dissolve. However, it becomes no less necessary that a control system should be highly adaptable. Rather, it is a question of using a frame of reference that is partially common to the two organisational levels in order to create a meaningful dialogue between them. In this way it is possible to facilitate the choice of strategic orientation as well as its implementation.
---
paper_title: Marketing's Role in the Implementation of Business Strategies: A Critical Review and Conceptual Framework:

paper_content:

The authors review and integrate various theoretical perspectives, normative statements, and pieces of empirical evidence about the organizational structures and processes best suited for implement...
---
paper_title: Marketing implementation: The implications of marketing paradigm weakness for the strategy execution process

paper_content:

Reviewing the marketing strategy implementation issue in an era of a weaker marketing paradigm contrasts traditional sequential flow models of implementation with the “strategy formulation/implementation dichotomy” and leads to the emergence of a processual view of implementation. The processual view clarifies the underlying behavioral and organizational factors that build strategy implementation capabilities. These underlying factors are at risk from a weaker marketing paradigm. The weakening of the marketing paradigm is discussed in terms of the downsizing and disappearance of the marketing function, but more fundamentally in the loss of strategic influence for marketing in the face of competing management paradigms such as the “lean enterprise” and “lean thinking.” The conclusion is that the impact on implementation capabilities is being felt first in companies where the marketing paradigm has been traditionally weak, but that this may be prototypical for other companies in the longer term. A number of important areas for conceptual and empirical attention are indentified.
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paper_title: Generic business strategies, organizational context and performance: An empirical investigation

paper_content:

Some of the common organizational requirements prescribed for generic business strategies of cost leadership and differentiation are empirically examined in a study consisting of 69 business units. The results suggest the fit between business unit strategy and the internal organization of multi-business companies does have an effect upon business unit performance.
---
paper_title: OBSTACLES TO STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION IN A NATIONALIZED INDUSTRY[1]

paper_content:

Implementation of policy or strategy in the public sector has attracted a growing interest in the U.S.A. (Bardach, 1977; Derthick, 1972; Pressman and Wildavsky, 1973) and more recently in the U.K. (Dunsire, 1978; Levitt, 1980; S.S.R.C., 1979). the emphasis in this stream of work is on centre-periphery relationships and their respective uses of power and authority and on interorganizational relationships. This emphasis probably stems from the overt independence of local Government and some other public bodies from central Government in their appointment, composition, manner of carrying out their duties and, in resource terms, raising revenue. In large ‘commercial’ organizations, centre-periphery relations have tended to be viewed more in terms of the formal organizational structure and have attracted less research attention. ::: ::: ::: ::: A complementary but distinct stream of research, offering many parallels and useful insights into management science/O.R. implementation, has grown from the early work of Churchman and Scheinblatt (1965) - for example Schultz and Slevin (1975), Doktor et al. (1979). This second stream concentrates more on technical, operational aspects and largely ignores power relations which are assumed to correspond closely to the formal organization structure. A third stream of research has emerged from the strategic management literature (Ansoff, 1979; Anthony, 1965; Lewin, 1981; Steiner and Miner, 1977). Here the emphasis has been on budgeting and control though the scope has broadened to embrace e.g. considerations of power. A fourth related contributor, drawn on mainly by the policy and strategy streams and largely ignored in the public policy literature, is the organizational behaviour literature with its work on the exercise of power in organizations (for example, Cyert and March, 1963; Mumford and Pettigrew, 1975). ::: ::: ::: ::: In the study to be described here, which predates privatization, insights have been drawn from, and relationships established between, each of these streams of work, none of which has yet produced a comprehensive theory of implementation; regretably it remains beyond the scope of this study to do so. Hypotheses have emerged from the study which are offered as a contribution to theory buiding in implementation. It is hoped that they, in combination with findings from other research, will bring nearer the goal of a comprehensive theory of implementation as a guide to planning and action applicable to both the public and private sectors. ::: ::: ::: ::: While there have been some empirical studies of strategy formulation, little field research has been undertaken on implementation (Bardach, 1977; Hofer, 1976; Schultz and Slevin, 1975).
---
paper_title: Identifying and appraising how managers install strategy

paper_content:

Cases were profiled to identify tactics used by strategic managers to implement strategy and to determine which tactic was the most effective in promoting adoption. Analysis revealed that four archetype tactics were used almost exclusively. An ‘interventionist’ approach had the best results but was used in only one case in five. ‘Persuasion’ and ‘participation’ were next most effective tactics, and ‘edicts’ the least effective. The implications of these findings for strategic management practice and the needs for further research are discussed.
---
paper_title: SBU Strategies, Corporate-SBU Relations, and SBU Effectiveness in Strategy Implementation

paper_content:

In a departure from earlier studies focusing only on the effects of corporate strategies, this study examined the effects of strategic business units' (SBUs') strategies on the utility of various states of corporate-SBU relations. For SBUs trying to build market share or to pursue differentiation as a competitive strategy, openness in corporate-SBU relations and subjectivity in performance assessment were found to be positively associated with effectiveness; for SBUs trying lo maximize short-term earnings or to pursue low cost as a competitive strategy, the corresponding associations were found to be negative. In contrast, corporate-SBU decentralization emerged as positively associated with SBUs' effectiveness irrespective of their strategic contexts; although SBUs' competitive strategies moderated the magnitude of that association, their strategic missions did not.
---
paper_title: The Eclectic Roots of Strategy Implementation Research

paper_content:

Abstract The researcher interested in strategy implementation faces a formidable challenge. Although this area has drawn many calls for research attention, there is not a deep and cohesive body of prior literature on which to draw in developing new efforts. This study proposes that through taking a broadened perspective of the nature of implementation, a range of valuable insights for the implementation researcher is available. First, various conceptualizations and definitions of implementation that have been proposed are considered. Next, a broad range of literature fields that have direct and indirect implications for the study of strategy implementation are reviewed. This review is organized around a framework that distinguishes between structural and interpersonal process views of implementation. Insights for the implementation researcher are highlighted. Finally, future directions for implementation research are proposed.
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paper_title: The impact of marketing/HR interactions on marketing strategy implementation

paper_content:

It is increasingly being recognised that cross‐unit working relationships have a key role to play in the successful implementation of marketing decisions. Although there is a substantial body of literature on marketing's interactions with other functions, particularly technical units such as R&D, within the context of the new product development (NPD) process, linkages between marketing and human resources (HR) have not been empirically investigated although they are widely advocated in both the marketing and HR management literatures. The conceptual model presented and tested in this paper focuses on the antecedents of effective marketing/HR interactions and posits successful marketing strategy implementation as an outcome of these. Results from a study of UK service organisations suggest that implementation effectiveness is affected negatively by conflict and positively by communication and specifically, interpersonal, not written. In turn, these interdepartmental dynamics are affected by senior managem...
---
paper_title: The importance of structure and process to strategy implementation

paper_content:

Abstract A study involving over 200 senior managers demonstrates that overall firm performance is strongly influenced by how well a firm's business strategy is matched to its organizational structure and the behavioral norms of its employees. The authors identify a taxonomy comprised of four different combinations of structure/behavior types, which they label as: Management Dominant, Customer-Centric Innovators, Customer-Centric Cost Controllers, and Middle Ground. These alternative structure/behavior types are then matched with specific business strategies (i.e., Prospectors, Analyzers, Low Cost Defenders, Differentiated Defenders) in order to identify which combination(s) of structures and behaviors best serve to facilitate the process of implementing a specific strategy.
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paper_title: Strategy Implementation Tactics as Response to Organizational, Strategic, and Environmental Imperatives **

paper_content:

Based on previous literature in the fields of strategy implementation and leadership research tactics for strategy implementation are identified. Three categories proved empirically valid in this study: autocratic tactics, participative tactics and tactics which rely on the given culture of the organization. The paper is based on the assumption that implementation in general is dependent on environmental, strategic and organizational variables. In this sense implementation tactics can be interpreted as genuine organizational behaviour. Based on a discussion of associations of implementation tactics with these variables it is hypothesized that the perception of environmental threats will lead to more autocratic tactics, whereas the existence of a formulated strategy will rather lead to more participative tactics. No such relationships are predicted for cultural tactics. A questionnaire-based measure of implementation tactics is tested in a sample of 136 Upper-Austrian firms by referring to implementation projects or strategy related issues. For a sub-sample (n=60) a moderated regression analysis on implementation tactics with measures of organizational structure, the environment, the strategy, and the interaction between environment and strategy as independent variables was performed. It shows that the use of autocratic tactics is significantly explained by environmental variables whereas participative tactics are significantly explained by the existence of a formulated strategy within the organization. For Culture as an implementation tactic only the interaction between environmental and strategic variables was a significant predictor. Implications for future theory building and empirical research into organizational behaviour in the context of strategy formulation and strategy implementation are discussed. Key words: Strategy Implementation; Implementation Tactics, Organizational Centralization, Uncertainty, Equivocality Many studies in the long tradition of organizational behaviour research could be qualified as general behavioural research, as long as they do not refer to idiosyncratic conditions within the organization. Rather then presenting new methodologies of research the aim of this paper is to seek new directions by explicitly linking behavioural inquiry to related fields in organizational research, in particular to organizational theory and to strategic management. This link is represented here through tactics of strategy implementation as behavioural patterns, which are dependent on environmental, organizational, and strategic conditions. There is still little research on strategy implementation, compared to the bulk of literature on the formulation and decision parts of the strategic process. Strategy implementation involves multiple levels of analysis which hinders the development of closed frameworks and of coherent streams of research. Consequently, researchers have taken a large diversity of perspectives on implementation (Noble, 1999). It has mainly been researched in regard to the fit between strategy and structure (e.g. Galbraith/Kazanjian 1986; Hrebaniak/Joyce 1984), building on the seminal work of Chandler (1962). This has been supplemented through studies of environmental and organizational contingencies for strategies (Damanpour 1996). A different research stream addresses implementation as a variant of leadership processes on a conceptual level (Bourgeois/Brodwin 1984) or empirically (e.g. Nutt 1986). The latter type of studies lacks explicit references to strategy content, with the exception of an empirical study using multiple case studies by Waldersee and Sheather (1996). Some studies link strategy type (Hambrick/Mason 1984; Miller/Toulouse 1986; Miller/Kets de Vries/ Toulouse 1982; Szilagy/Schweiger 1984) or implementation (Gupta/Govindarajan 1984; Govindarajan 1989; Nutt 1995) to managerial characteristics. However, there is a growing literature on the resource-based view (Wernerfelt 1989; Barney 1991) or competence-based view (German/Thomas 1997) of the firm, emphasizing the importance of organizational processes and capabilities for sustained competitive advantage. …
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paper_title: How Corporate Communication Influences Strategy Implementation, Reputation and the Corporate Brand: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

paper_content:

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative field study of five firms from diverse industries on best practices in corporate communication, especially as they concern the links between a company's corporate communication function, on the one hand, and its implementation of strategy, its reputation and its corporate branding, on the other. The overarching question addressed in this study is this: How can the corporate communication function operate successfully at the heart of an organization, that is, where companies are orchestrating buy-in for strategy and building the corporate brand and reputation? Results show the importance of the following elements: alignment between the function and strategy implementation, CEO as best reporting structure, focus on brand and reputation, importance of internal communications, innovative uses of information technology and the function as an art and science.
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paper_title: Global Strategy Implementation at the Business Unit Level: Operational Capabilities and Administrative Mechanisms

paper_content:

The study examines the impact of internationally strategy on organizational design and the influence of the organizational design on effectiveness at the business unit level. The empirical findings are based on survey responses from eighty-two business units competing in global industries. The findings are supportive of the contingency notion which suggests that business unit effectiveness is a function of the fit between the international strategy and the organizational design.
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paper_title: Implementing global strategies: The role of procedural justice

paper_content:

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.
---
paper_title: Towards a strategy implementation framework

paper_content:

Aims to develop an implementation framework. Further to a critical review of previous research, ten implementation variables were identified and a conceptual framework constructed. The implementation process of a strategic decision was investigated in two international hotel groups via in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews, observations and documentation analysis. The initial conceptual framework was found to be useful as it grouped key variables together and illustrated their roles when implementing strategic decisions. Three new variables, however, emerged from the findings; namely, multiple project implementation, organisational learning and working with external companies. A revised framework was then proposed and further explanations provided. Concludes by emphasising the importance of contextual variables in implementation and dispels the strategic management notion of “fit”.
---
paper_title: Strategy Implementation: The Impact of Demographic Characteristics on the Level of Support Received by Middle Managers

paper_content:

■ Middle managers of contemporary organizations play an important role in ensuring successful strategy implementation, which requires top managers to provide adequate support to them. One of the key factors determining the level of support is the demographic characteristics of middle managers. ■ This article examines the impact of a middle manager's demographic characteristics on the level of support received during strategy implementation. Factors needed for successful strategy implementation are used to measure the level of support received by middle managers in the marketing department of selected UK private companies.
---
paper_title: OBSTACLES TO STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION IN A NATIONALIZED INDUSTRY[1]

paper_content:

Implementation of policy or strategy in the public sector has attracted a growing interest in the U.S.A. (Bardach, 1977; Derthick, 1972; Pressman and Wildavsky, 1973) and more recently in the U.K. (Dunsire, 1978; Levitt, 1980; S.S.R.C., 1979). the emphasis in this stream of work is on centre-periphery relationships and their respective uses of power and authority and on interorganizational relationships. This emphasis probably stems from the overt independence of local Government and some other public bodies from central Government in their appointment, composition, manner of carrying out their duties and, in resource terms, raising revenue. In large ‘commercial’ organizations, centre-periphery relations have tended to be viewed more in terms of the formal organizational structure and have attracted less research attention. ::: ::: ::: ::: A complementary but distinct stream of research, offering many parallels and useful insights into management science/O.R. implementation, has grown from the early work of Churchman and Scheinblatt (1965) - for example Schultz and Slevin (1975), Doktor et al. (1979). This second stream concentrates more on technical, operational aspects and largely ignores power relations which are assumed to correspond closely to the formal organization structure. A third stream of research has emerged from the strategic management literature (Ansoff, 1979; Anthony, 1965; Lewin, 1981; Steiner and Miner, 1977). Here the emphasis has been on budgeting and control though the scope has broadened to embrace e.g. considerations of power. A fourth related contributor, drawn on mainly by the policy and strategy streams and largely ignored in the public policy literature, is the organizational behaviour literature with its work on the exercise of power in organizations (for example, Cyert and March, 1963; Mumford and Pettigrew, 1975). ::: ::: ::: ::: In the study to be described here, which predates privatization, insights have been drawn from, and relationships established between, each of these streams of work, none of which has yet produced a comprehensive theory of implementation; regretably it remains beyond the scope of this study to do so. Hypotheses have emerged from the study which are offered as a contribution to theory buiding in implementation. It is hoped that they, in combination with findings from other research, will bring nearer the goal of a comprehensive theory of implementation as a guide to planning and action applicable to both the public and private sectors. ::: ::: ::: ::: While there have been some empirical studies of strategy formulation, little field research has been undertaken on implementation (Bardach, 1977; Hofer, 1976; Schultz and Slevin, 1975).
---
paper_title: Successfully Implementing Strategic Decisions

paper_content:

Although strategy implementation is viewed as an integral part of the strategic management process, little has been written or researched on it. The overwhelming majority of the literature so far has been on the long-range planning process itself or the actual content of the strategy being formulated. We have so far been giving lip service to the other side of the coin, namely strategy implementation. Consequently, it is not surprising that after a comprehensive strategy or single strategic decision has been formulated, significant difficulties are often encountered during the subsequent implementation process.
---
paper_title: Performance in adolescent, technology-based firms: Product strategy, implementation, and synergy

paper_content:

Abstract Based on a sample of “adolescent” firms in technology-based industries, this study analyzes the effects on performance of two aspects of product strategy-product leadership and product/market focus, two aspects of strategic implementation-stakeholder input and employee empowerment, and the interaction of product strategy and strategic implementation variables. Five aspects of performance are examined, including growth rate, R&D, profit, financial stability, and future prospects.
---
paper_title: Incorporating cognitive aids into decision support systems: the case of the strategy execution process

paper_content:

Abstract To ease the access to data bases for the casual user, a system called SMARTY has been developed as an intelligent front end to the relational data base management system SQL/DS. A user only needs to specify the data attributes and possibly their value ranges which he wants to be displayed. SMARTY will test the meaningfulness of this request for information and subsequently generate and execute the SQL statements for deriving the information from SQL relations. SMARTY is capable of extracting or aggregating detailed information in a company database. It can be regarded as an expert system on top of a relational DBMS to improve the user interface, or as a query system to a universal relation. SMARTY was written in Prolog. Both Prolog and SQL/DS are running under the IBM operating system VM/SP 3.
---
paper_title: Implementing global strategies: The role of procedural justice

paper_content:

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.
---
paper_title: A short, practical guide to implementing strategy

paper_content:

Purpose – Most strategies stumble in the implementation phase. This article outlines a market‐validated process, and practical guidelines, for optimizing implementation. The primary audience is mid‐level and senior executives charged with the responsibility for implementing strategy.Design/methodology/approach – This implementation process focuses on the critical timeframe immediately following formal strategy selection, when broad objectives need to be translated into specific actions, schedules, budgets, and metrics. The approach is to capture the key decisions in an accessible, common format, and to deploy this tool consistently throughout the organization to monitor and guide implementation. Dozens of firms across a wide array of industries have used the methodology, which derives from two decades of senior operating and strategy consulting experience.Findings – Strategy development receives significant attention and resources, but implementation is often neglected, with disastrous consequences. Using...
---
paper_title: Successfully Implementing Strategic Decisions

paper_content:

Although strategy implementation is viewed as an integral part of the strategic management process, little has been written or researched on it. The overwhelming majority of the literature so far has been on the long-range planning process itself or the actual content of the strategy being formulated. We have so far been giving lip service to the other side of the coin, namely strategy implementation. Consequently, it is not surprising that after a comprehensive strategy or single strategic decision has been formulated, significant difficulties are often encountered during the subsequent implementation process.
---
paper_title: Marketing's contribution to the implementation of business strategy: an empirical analysis

paper_content:

This paper describes a study that assesses the performance implications of matching marketing strategy to business strategy. In order to conduct this study we first reviewed the literature on marketing strategy to identify its key dimensions. We then conducted a survey of 1000 senior marketing executives about the strategic marketing practices adopted in their respective firms or business units, and developed scales to describe 11 strategic marketing activities. We next performed a K-means cluster analysis using these scales to develop a taxonomy of marketing strategy types consisting of: Aggressive Marketers, Mass Marketers, Marketing Minimizers, and Value Marketers. We then observed that superior performance at the firm or SBU level was achieved when specific marketing strategy types were matched with appropriate Miles and Snow (1978) business strategy types. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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paper_title: Explanations from the marketing/human resources dyad for marketing strategy implementation effectiveness in service firms

paper_content:

Abstract The marketing strategy literature is often criticized for the dearth of conceptual, theoretical, and empirical studies focusing on antecedents to effective marketing strategy implementation. Despite some related research on the constituency-based theory of the firm, even less is understood concerning the interplay between functional areas on marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. We examine the marketing/human resources (HR) dyad and contribute to this limited platform of knowledge by testing a set of eight hypotheses that forms the basis of the model in which six process-based organization dimensions are considered to be related to the psychosocial outcomes of relationship effectiveness and interfunctional conflict. These, in turn, are hypothesized to impact upon the behavioral outcome of marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. The data that are used to test these relationships are generated from 230 medium and large European service-based firms. While we find that psychosocial outcomes do have important effects on marketing strategy implementation effectiveness, a paradox is observed in the effects of process-based dimensions upon psychosocial outcomes. These findings are interpreted and discussed in the context of existing literature and a number of implications are drawn.
---
paper_title: Marketing's Role in the Implementation of Business Strategies: A Critical Review and Conceptual Framework:

paper_content:

The authors review and integrate various theoretical perspectives, normative statements, and pieces of empirical evidence about the organizational structures and processes best suited for implement...
---
paper_title: SBU Strategies, Corporate-SBU Relations, and SBU Effectiveness in Strategy Implementation

paper_content:

In a departure from earlier studies focusing only on the effects of corporate strategies, this study examined the effects of strategic business units' (SBUs') strategies on the utility of various states of corporate-SBU relations. For SBUs trying to build market share or to pursue differentiation as a competitive strategy, openness in corporate-SBU relations and subjectivity in performance assessment were found to be positively associated with effectiveness; for SBUs trying lo maximize short-term earnings or to pursue low cost as a competitive strategy, the corresponding associations were found to be negative. In contrast, corporate-SBU decentralization emerged as positively associated with SBUs' effectiveness irrespective of their strategic contexts; although SBUs' competitive strategies moderated the magnitude of that association, their strategic missions did not.
---
paper_title: The impact of marketing/HR interactions on marketing strategy implementation

paper_content:

It is increasingly being recognised that cross‐unit working relationships have a key role to play in the successful implementation of marketing decisions. Although there is a substantial body of literature on marketing's interactions with other functions, particularly technical units such as R&D, within the context of the new product development (NPD) process, linkages between marketing and human resources (HR) have not been empirically investigated although they are widely advocated in both the marketing and HR management literatures. The conceptual model presented and tested in this paper focuses on the antecedents of effective marketing/HR interactions and posits successful marketing strategy implementation as an outcome of these. Results from a study of UK service organisations suggest that implementation effectiveness is affected negatively by conflict and positively by communication and specifically, interpersonal, not written. In turn, these interdepartmental dynamics are affected by senior managem...
---
paper_title: Implementing competitive strategies at the business unit level: Implications of matching managers to strategies

paper_content:

This paper argues that, for superior performance, it is necessary to attune the choice of the general manager to the strategy of the business unit (SBU). Data from 121 SBUs indicate that SBU competitive strategy interacts with several managerial orientations (functional background, locus of control, and problem-solving style) to influence SBU effectiveness. The theoretical and practical relevance of these findings are discussed, as are directions for future research.
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paper_title: Key success factors when implementing strategic manufacturing initiatives

paper_content:

Purpose – This paper reports the study of key success factors (KSFs) in the project management of the implementation of strategic manufacturing initiatives (SMIs). Design/methodology/approach – In order to gather the experience and knowledge of many industries, from different geographic locations, in a broad range of types and sizes of SMIs, a questionnaire-based survey of practitioners worldwide was selected as the most appropriate research method among those available. Findings – The identification of those tasks and activities that must be done well in order to succeed in the implementation of a SMI in practice. Practical implications – Practitioners focusing their attention on the KSFs identified are more likely to succeed. Once these factors have been identified, the value of benchmarking project management methodologies then comes from drawing attention to those tasks that are key to the success of the implementation of SMIs. Originality/value – The paper presents new thinking by bringing project management into the operations strategy implementation literature as an important mediating factor for success. In this context the factors that are required for successful implementation are identified.
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paper_title: Organisational communication and strategy implementation - a primary inquiry.

paper_content:

Over the last decade, organisational communication has attracted growing academic interest. Focuses on organisational communication within multi‐unit organisations in order to understand better the strategy implementation process from a communication perspective. Three hotel chains were investigated, all UK plcs with diversified business portfolios, and which were in the process of implementing a strategic initiative. The findings show that effective communication is a primary requirement of effective implementation but it does not guarantee the effectiveness of implementation.
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paper_title: Strategic Governance: how to assess board effectiveness in guiding strategy execution

paper_content:

Subsequent to a host of corporate corruption scandals, boards of directors are facing amplified pressure from investors, creditors and shareholders in a bid to ensure effective corporate governance of their investments. In previous research and public debate, the effectiveness of corporate governance structures has come under close scrutiny. However, boards' effectiveness in fulfilling their strategic role by guiding strategy execution mostly has been left unaddressed. Due to the high degree of secrecy and sensitivity of strategy issues, boards' effectiveness in guiding strategy execution is much more difficult to assess externally compared to structural governance issues. Against the backdrop of these difficulties and based upon insights from strategy process research, we suggest taking "strategy consistency" between a firm's resource allocation and its announced strategy as a proxy for boards' effectiveness in guiding strategy execution. In doing so, the paper contributes to extant research by going beyond structural governance issues and paying direct attention to strategic governance issues. Specifically, the paper develops a new approach and set of standard measures to assess boards' effectiveness in strategy execution. Copyright (c) 2006 The Authors; Journal compilation (c) 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
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paper_title: Consensus‐Performance Research: Theoretical and Empirical Extensions*

paper_content:

Research on the consensus-performance relationship has typically used correlational data to examine the simple, bivariate relationship between top management team consensus and firm performance. the results of this research are equivocal. Recent theoretical work, however, suggests a number of ‘third variables’ that may provide additional insight into the consensus-performance relationship through the ‘process of elaboration’. This paper presents theoretical models, based on recent theory building, that may be appropriate for incorporating these additional variables in future research.
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paper_title: Toward a Research Agenda on Top Management Teams and Strategy Implementation

paper_content:

Abstract This paper addresses the question, "What's next in research on top management teams and strategic effectiveness?" Specifically, we focus on the relationship between top management teams and strategy implementation and suggest that strategy implementation has been a missing link between strategy and performance. A research agenda to remedy this deficit is advanced. Research into the importance of top management has a long history. Initial studies of executive leadership focused on the impact of individual CEOs or general managers (Day & Lord,1988; Gupta & Govindarajan,1984; Lieberson & O'Connor, 1972; Miller & Toulouse, 1986; Thomas, 1988). More recent studies, driven by the theoretical constructs of the "dominant coalition" (Cyert & March, 1963) and the "upper echelon" (Hambrick & Mason,1984), have focused on top management teams. The preponderance of TMT research has been heavily influenced by the decision models of the Carnegie School (Cyert & March, 1963; March & Simon, 1958). The model, as articulated by Hambrick and Mason (1984), suggests that top managers affect organizational outcomes primarily through the decisions or "strategic choices" they make, decisions that are influenced by characteristics (including the cognitive biases and values) of the decision makers. Thus, research has focused on TMT-related factors thought to influence strategic decision-making by the team. While accepting the importance of this theoretical model, we believe that the body of research based on it suffers from three limitations. First, and most importantly, the model makes a significant jump from strategic choice (or strategy formulation) to organizational outcomes. The processes by which strategic choice is implemented- processes associated with what Mintzberg (1978) called "deliberate" strategy-have received little attention. Second, alternatives to the Carnegie decision model exist. Allison ( 1969), for example, suggests organizational process and bureaucratic political models of decision making in addition to the rational policy model. Indeed, the very term "dominant coalition" (Cyert & March, 1963) implies a political decision process. One might suspect that the influence decision makers have on organizational outcomes will vary depending on which decision model-or combination of models-is operative. Third, the decision model implicit in the TMT research begs the question of possibly significant differences between influence of the TMT on the pursuit of "intended" as compared to "emergent" strategies (Mintzberg, 1978). A growing literature on empowerment, self managed teams, and leadership suggests that the role of senior executives is changing from planners and directors to coaches and supporters (c.f., Flood, Gannon & Paauwe, 1996; Manz & Sims, 1993; Smith & Sims, 1995). Thus, the very assumption that TMTs influence organizational outcomes primarily through their influence on strategy formulation may need to be reconsidered. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is two-fold. First, we summarize the major themes in the TMT literature to demonstrate the current emphasis on rational strategy formulation. Although we believe that this literature is enlightening and important, we argue that the theoretical and empirical omission of implementation requires a significant leap in logic to link TMT characteristics and behaviors to organizational outcomes. Second, we suggest a number of research questions and methodological issues to be considered in developing a program of research designed to reduce this gap in our understanding of the strategic significance of TMTs. An Overview of Recent TMT Research Our discussion of the literature follows the general framework presented in Figure 1. This model was developed from an extensive review of the theoretical and empirical literature on top management teams and is presented as an organizing framework for our discussion. …
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paper_title: Performance in adolescent, technology-based firms: Product strategy, implementation, and synergy

paper_content:

Abstract Based on a sample of “adolescent” firms in technology-based industries, this study analyzes the effects on performance of two aspects of product strategy-product leadership and product/market focus, two aspects of strategic implementation-stakeholder input and employee empowerment, and the interaction of product strategy and strategic implementation variables. Five aspects of performance are examined, including growth rate, R&D, profit, financial stability, and future prospects.
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paper_title: Middle Management’s Strategic Influence and Organizational Performance

paper_content:

This study investigated relationships between middle managers’ formal position, their strategic influence and organizational performance. Among the 259 middle managers represented in the study, managers with formal positions in boundary–spanning sub–units reported higher levels of strategic influence activity than others. At the organizational level of analysis, the study found that firm performance was associated with more uniform levels of downward strategic influence, and more varied levels of upward influence among middle management cohorts. The findings suggest that middle managers’ strategic influence arises from their ability to mediate between internal and external selection environments. In addition, positive effects on organizational performance appear to depend on: (1) whether the overall pattern of upward influence is conducive to shifts in the network centrality of individual managers; and (2) whether the pattern of downward influence is consistent with an appropriate balance between the organization’s need for control and flexibility.
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paper_title: Middle management involvement in strategy and its association with strategic type: A research note

paper_content:

This paper reports the results of a study that investigated the strategic involvement of 259 middle managers in 25 organizations. Drawing from previous clinical research, a theoretical typology of middle management roles in strategy is developed. Measures for each role are derived, and the relationship between middle management strategic involvement and Miles and Snow's (1978) strategic type is examined. Results suggest the usefulness of these measures in assessing both the level and type of middle management strategic activity. In addition, the findings show that middle managers in Prospectors report significantly higher levels of upward and divergent forms of strategic involvement than those in Analyzers and Defenders. Traditionally, middle-level managers have not been considered part of the strategy process except in providing informational inputs and directing implementation. Contemporary theory and descriptions suggest, however, that middle managers regularly attempt to influence strategy and often provide the impetus for new initiatives (Burgelman, 1983a,b; Mintzberg and Waters, 1985). Bower (1970) was one of the first to recognize the contributions of middle managers: they '... are the only men [sic] in the organization who are in a position to judge whether [strategic] issues are being considered in the proper context' (297-298). More recently, empirical research has confirmed middle management's upward influence on strategic decisions (Schilit, 1987)
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paper_title: Implementing competitive strategies at the business unit level: Implications of matching managers to strategies

paper_content:

This paper argues that, for superior performance, it is necessary to attune the choice of the general manager to the strategy of the business unit (SBU). Data from 121 SBUs indicate that SBU competitive strategy interacts with several managerial orientations (functional background, locus of control, and problem-solving style) to influence SBU effectiveness. The theoretical and practical relevance of these findings are discussed, as are directions for future research.
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paper_title: Business Unit Strategy, Managerial Characteristics, and Business Unit Effectiveness at Strategy Implementation

paper_content:

Data from 58 strategic business units (SBUs) reveal that greater marketing/sales experience, greater willingness to take risk, and greater tolerance for ambiguity on the part of the SBU general manager contribute to effectiveness in the case of “build” SBUs but hamper it in the case of “harvest” SBUs.
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paper_title: Middle-manager effort in strategy implementation: A multinational perspective

paper_content:

Too little is known about middle manager involvement in the implementation of strategic change. Even less is known about how that may occur in a multinational context. One of the few systematic studies of middle manager implementation effort was done by Guth and MacMillan (1986). Our study refined Guth and MacMillan's insights by identifying the relative importance of the three determinants of implementation effort; perceived ability, perceived probability of success, and perceived consistency between personal goals and the strategic change goals. As a further extension of this theory, we found that the personal characteristics of the middle managers influenced their perceptions. Furthermore, national culture was found to moderate the relationship between middle managers' personal characteristics and their perceptions. In sum, this study refines and extends our understanding of the strategy implementation literature.
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paper_title: Strategy Implementation: The Impact of Demographic Characteristics on the Level of Support Received by Middle Managers

paper_content:

■ Middle managers of contemporary organizations play an important role in ensuring successful strategy implementation, which requires top managers to provide adequate support to them. One of the key factors determining the level of support is the demographic characteristics of middle managers. ■ This article examines the impact of a middle manager's demographic characteristics on the level of support received during strategy implementation. Factors needed for successful strategy implementation are used to measure the level of support received by middle managers in the marketing department of selected UK private companies.
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paper_title: Strategy implementation versus middle management self-interest

paper_content:

This article suggests that middle managers with low or negative commitment to the strategies formulated by senior management create significant obstacles to effective implementation.
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paper_title: The strategy process, middle management involvement, and organizational performance

paper_content:

This paper reports the results of a study investigating the strategic involvement of middlelevel 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.
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paper_title: Strategic implementation: Five approaches to an elusive phenomenon

paper_content:

The traditional textbook approach to strategy implementation was to treat ‘implementation’ as an activity following ‘formulation’. Usually, the topic was treated as a question of organization design, where systems and structures were manipulated in concert with strategic goals. More recent views treat implementation either as an issue of gaining prior group commitment through coalitional decision-making, or as a question of total organizational involvement through a strong corporate culture. This paper reviews the evolution of these approaches, developing four models to characterize them, and suggests a fifth one, with strategy emerging in an almost-implemented form from within the firm.
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paper_title: Critical tactics for implementing Porter's generic strategies

paper_content:

Purpose – To identify and cite examples of critical tactics for implementing Porter's generic strategies.Design/methodology/approach – A survey of over 200 organizations was conducted to determine their relative use of tactics and organizational performance. Factor analysis and regression analyses were used to identify tactics that were strongly related to organizational performance. Examples of implementation are presented to illustrate use of the critical tactics.Findings – A list of ten tactics were identified as significantly related with the generic strategies and higher levels of organizational performance.Research limitations/implications – As is typical with survey research, the convenience sample of organizations used in this survey may or may not be representative of all organizations. Also, when using regression analysis it is important to keep in mind that correlation does not necessarily mean causation. Therefore we are not certain that the significant tactics caused the higher levels of orga...
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paper_title: How Corporate Communication Influences Strategy Implementation, Reputation and the Corporate Brand: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

paper_content:

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative field study of five firms from diverse industries on best practices in corporate communication, especially as they concern the links between a company's corporate communication function, on the one hand, and its implementation of strategy, its reputation and its corporate branding, on the other. The overarching question addressed in this study is this: How can the corporate communication function operate successfully at the heart of an organization, that is, where companies are orchestrating buy-in for strategy and building the corporate brand and reputation? Results show the importance of the following elements: alignment between the function and strategy implementation, CEO as best reporting structure, focus on brand and reputation, importance of internal communications, innovative uses of information technology and the function as an art and science.
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paper_title: Selecting tactics to implement strategic plans

paper_content:

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 this research for practicing managers are discussed.
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paper_title: The strategic implementation process: evoking strategic consensus through communication

paper_content:

Abstract Effective strategy implementation is predicated on the assumption that functional areas within the firm have a basic understanding of the strategy. Termed strategic consensus, this concept refers to the extent to which intraorganizational perceptions converge on shared understandings of strategic priorities. The present study provides an initial exploration of consensus, supporting the viability of frequent vertical communication as a means by which strategic consensus may be enhanced. The performance implications of vertical communication and consensus reaffirm the important roles that frequent communication and shared understandings play in the implementation process. Specifically, when vertical communication is frequent, strategic consensus is enhanced and organizational performance improves, as evidenced by higher levels of net operating income, gross revenues, and growth in net revenues. And, in firms where the marketing executive's interpretation of strategy aligns with the chief executive officer's (CEO) perspective (i.e., strategic consensus), organizations are rewarded with higher levels of both marketing and organizational performance.
---
paper_title: Organisational communication and strategy implementation - a primary inquiry.

paper_content:

Over the last decade, organisational communication has attracted growing academic interest. Focuses on organisational communication within multi‐unit organisations in order to understand better the strategy implementation process from a communication perspective. Three hotel chains were investigated, all UK plcs with diversified business portfolios, and which were in the process of implementing a strategic initiative. The findings show that effective communication is a primary requirement of effective implementation but it does not guarantee the effectiveness of implementation.
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paper_title: Tactics of Implementation

paper_content:

This study identified implementation tactics used by managers in making planned changes by profiling 91 case studies. Analysis revealed four types of tactics, variations within these tactics, and h...
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paper_title: Identifying and appraising how managers install strategy

paper_content:

Cases were profiled to identify tactics used by strategic managers to implement strategy and to determine which tactic was the most effective in promoting adoption. Analysis revealed that four archetype tactics were used almost exclusively. An ‘interventionist’ approach had the best results but was used in only one case in five. ‘Persuasion’ and ‘participation’ were next most effective tactics, and ‘edicts’ the least effective. The implications of these findings for strategic management practice and the needs for further research are discussed.
---
paper_title: Successfully Implementing Strategic Decisions

paper_content:

Although strategy implementation is viewed as an integral part of the strategic management process, little has been written or researched on it. The overwhelming majority of the literature so far has been on the long-range planning process itself or the actual content of the strategy being formulated. We have so far been giving lip service to the other side of the coin, namely strategy implementation. Consequently, it is not surprising that after a comprehensive strategy or single strategic decision has been formulated, significant difficulties are often encountered during the subsequent implementation process.
---
paper_title: The Eclectic Roots of Strategy Implementation Research

paper_content:

Abstract The researcher interested in strategy implementation faces a formidable challenge. Although this area has drawn many calls for research attention, there is not a deep and cohesive body of prior literature on which to draw in developing new efforts. This study proposes that through taking a broadened perspective of the nature of implementation, a range of valuable insights for the implementation researcher is available. First, various conceptualizations and definitions of implementation that have been proposed are considered. Next, a broad range of literature fields that have direct and indirect implications for the study of strategy implementation are reviewed. This review is organized around a framework that distinguishes between structural and interpersonal process views of implementation. Insights for the implementation researcher are highlighted. Finally, future directions for implementation research are proposed.
---
paper_title: Exploring barriers to the successful implementation of a formulated strategy

paper_content:

This paper reports a case study conducted to identify barriers to the successful implementation of activities as part of a planned strategy in a Norwegian ferry-cruise company. Data were gathered among workers on one of the company's vessels using a structured sequence of questions with open-ended answers. Our findings indicate that various types of communication problem which may be influenced to some extent by the organizational structure, constitute the key barriers to the implementation of planned strategic activities.
---
paper_title: Strategy Implementation Tactics as Response to Organizational, Strategic, and Environmental Imperatives **

paper_content:

Based on previous literature in the fields of strategy implementation and leadership research tactics for strategy implementation are identified. Three categories proved empirically valid in this study: autocratic tactics, participative tactics and tactics which rely on the given culture of the organization. The paper is based on the assumption that implementation in general is dependent on environmental, strategic and organizational variables. In this sense implementation tactics can be interpreted as genuine organizational behaviour. Based on a discussion of associations of implementation tactics with these variables it is hypothesized that the perception of environmental threats will lead to more autocratic tactics, whereas the existence of a formulated strategy will rather lead to more participative tactics. No such relationships are predicted for cultural tactics. A questionnaire-based measure of implementation tactics is tested in a sample of 136 Upper-Austrian firms by referring to implementation projects or strategy related issues. For a sub-sample (n=60) a moderated regression analysis on implementation tactics with measures of organizational structure, the environment, the strategy, and the interaction between environment and strategy as independent variables was performed. It shows that the use of autocratic tactics is significantly explained by environmental variables whereas participative tactics are significantly explained by the existence of a formulated strategy within the organization. For Culture as an implementation tactic only the interaction between environmental and strategic variables was a significant predictor. Implications for future theory building and empirical research into organizational behaviour in the context of strategy formulation and strategy implementation are discussed. Key words: Strategy Implementation; Implementation Tactics, Organizational Centralization, Uncertainty, Equivocality Many studies in the long tradition of organizational behaviour research could be qualified as general behavioural research, as long as they do not refer to idiosyncratic conditions within the organization. Rather then presenting new methodologies of research the aim of this paper is to seek new directions by explicitly linking behavioural inquiry to related fields in organizational research, in particular to organizational theory and to strategic management. This link is represented here through tactics of strategy implementation as behavioural patterns, which are dependent on environmental, organizational, and strategic conditions. There is still little research on strategy implementation, compared to the bulk of literature on the formulation and decision parts of the strategic process. Strategy implementation involves multiple levels of analysis which hinders the development of closed frameworks and of coherent streams of research. Consequently, researchers have taken a large diversity of perspectives on implementation (Noble, 1999). It has mainly been researched in regard to the fit between strategy and structure (e.g. Galbraith/Kazanjian 1986; Hrebaniak/Joyce 1984), building on the seminal work of Chandler (1962). This has been supplemented through studies of environmental and organizational contingencies for strategies (Damanpour 1996). A different research stream addresses implementation as a variant of leadership processes on a conceptual level (Bourgeois/Brodwin 1984) or empirically (e.g. Nutt 1986). The latter type of studies lacks explicit references to strategy content, with the exception of an empirical study using multiple case studies by Waldersee and Sheather (1996). Some studies link strategy type (Hambrick/Mason 1984; Miller/Toulouse 1986; Miller/Kets de Vries/ Toulouse 1982; Szilagy/Schweiger 1984) or implementation (Gupta/Govindarajan 1984; Govindarajan 1989; Nutt 1995) to managerial characteristics. However, there is a growing literature on the resource-based view (Wernerfelt 1989; Barney 1991) or competence-based view (German/Thomas 1997) of the firm, emphasizing the importance of organizational processes and capabilities for sustained competitive advantage. …
---
paper_title: Strategic implementation: Five approaches to an elusive phenomenon

paper_content:

The traditional textbook approach to strategy implementation was to treat ‘implementation’ as an activity following ‘formulation’. Usually, the topic was treated as a question of organization design, where systems and structures were manipulated in concert with strategic goals. More recent views treat implementation either as an issue of gaining prior group commitment through coalitional decision-making, or as a question of total organizational involvement through a strong corporate culture. This paper reviews the evolution of these approaches, developing four models to characterize them, and suggests a fifth one, with strategy emerging in an almost-implemented form from within the firm.
---
paper_title: Selecting tactics to implement strategic plans

paper_content:

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 this research for practicing managers are discussed.
---
paper_title: Identifying and appraising how managers install strategy

paper_content:

Cases were profiled to identify tactics used by strategic managers to implement strategy and to determine which tactic was the most effective in promoting adoption. Analysis revealed that four archetype tactics were used almost exclusively. An ‘interventionist’ approach had the best results but was used in only one case in five. ‘Persuasion’ and ‘participation’ were next most effective tactics, and ‘edicts’ the least effective. The implications of these findings for strategic management practice and the needs for further research are discussed.
---
paper_title: Strategy Implementation Tactics as Response to Organizational, Strategic, and Environmental Imperatives **

paper_content:

Based on previous literature in the fields of strategy implementation and leadership research tactics for strategy implementation are identified. Three categories proved empirically valid in this study: autocratic tactics, participative tactics and tactics which rely on the given culture of the organization. The paper is based on the assumption that implementation in general is dependent on environmental, strategic and organizational variables. In this sense implementation tactics can be interpreted as genuine organizational behaviour. Based on a discussion of associations of implementation tactics with these variables it is hypothesized that the perception of environmental threats will lead to more autocratic tactics, whereas the existence of a formulated strategy will rather lead to more participative tactics. No such relationships are predicted for cultural tactics. A questionnaire-based measure of implementation tactics is tested in a sample of 136 Upper-Austrian firms by referring to implementation projects or strategy related issues. For a sub-sample (n=60) a moderated regression analysis on implementation tactics with measures of organizational structure, the environment, the strategy, and the interaction between environment and strategy as independent variables was performed. It shows that the use of autocratic tactics is significantly explained by environmental variables whereas participative tactics are significantly explained by the existence of a formulated strategy within the organization. For Culture as an implementation tactic only the interaction between environmental and strategic variables was a significant predictor. Implications for future theory building and empirical research into organizational behaviour in the context of strategy formulation and strategy implementation are discussed. Key words: Strategy Implementation; Implementation Tactics, Organizational Centralization, Uncertainty, Equivocality Many studies in the long tradition of organizational behaviour research could be qualified as general behavioural research, as long as they do not refer to idiosyncratic conditions within the organization. Rather then presenting new methodologies of research the aim of this paper is to seek new directions by explicitly linking behavioural inquiry to related fields in organizational research, in particular to organizational theory and to strategic management. This link is represented here through tactics of strategy implementation as behavioural patterns, which are dependent on environmental, organizational, and strategic conditions. There is still little research on strategy implementation, compared to the bulk of literature on the formulation and decision parts of the strategic process. Strategy implementation involves multiple levels of analysis which hinders the development of closed frameworks and of coherent streams of research. Consequently, researchers have taken a large diversity of perspectives on implementation (Noble, 1999). It has mainly been researched in regard to the fit between strategy and structure (e.g. Galbraith/Kazanjian 1986; Hrebaniak/Joyce 1984), building on the seminal work of Chandler (1962). This has been supplemented through studies of environmental and organizational contingencies for strategies (Damanpour 1996). A different research stream addresses implementation as a variant of leadership processes on a conceptual level (Bourgeois/Brodwin 1984) or empirically (e.g. Nutt 1986). The latter type of studies lacks explicit references to strategy content, with the exception of an empirical study using multiple case studies by Waldersee and Sheather (1996). Some studies link strategy type (Hambrick/Mason 1984; Miller/Toulouse 1986; Miller/Kets de Vries/ Toulouse 1982; Szilagy/Schweiger 1984) or implementation (Gupta/Govindarajan 1984; Govindarajan 1989; Nutt 1995) to managerial characteristics. However, there is a growing literature on the resource-based view (Wernerfelt 1989; Barney 1991) or competence-based view (German/Thomas 1997) of the firm, emphasizing the importance of organizational processes and capabilities for sustained competitive advantage. …
---
paper_title: Managing strategic consensus: the foundation of effective implementation.

paper_content:

Executive Overview A frequent complaint of senior executives is that middle and operating managers fail to take the actions necessary to implement strategy. As one top manager told us. “It's been rather easy for us to decide where we wanted to go. The hard part is to get the organization to act on the new priorities.” Implementation problems of this type are often the result of poor middle management understanding and commitment to strategy. In our research we've found that relatively few middle managers articulate the same goals as their superiors. More troublesome, other researchers have found that middle managers who disagree with strategic initiatives frequently work against their implementation. This article examines an approach to implementation that focuses on the level of strategic understanding and commitment shared by managers within the organization. A framework identifying four categories of strategic consensus is introduced and used as the basis for analyzing differences in how managers perce...
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paper_title: Consensus‐Performance Research: Theoretical and Empirical Extensions*

paper_content:

Research on the consensus-performance relationship has typically used correlational data to examine the simple, bivariate relationship between top management team consensus and firm performance. the results of this research are equivocal. Recent theoretical work, however, suggests a number of ‘third variables’ that may provide additional insight into the consensus-performance relationship through the ‘process of elaboration’. This paper presents theoretical models, based on recent theory building, that may be appropriate for incorporating these additional variables in future research.
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paper_title: The Eclectic Roots of Strategy Implementation Research

paper_content:

Abstract The researcher interested in strategy implementation faces a formidable challenge. Although this area has drawn many calls for research attention, there is not a deep and cohesive body of prior literature on which to draw in developing new efforts. This study proposes that through taking a broadened perspective of the nature of implementation, a range of valuable insights for the implementation researcher is available. First, various conceptualizations and definitions of implementation that have been proposed are considered. Next, a broad range of literature fields that have direct and indirect implications for the study of strategy implementation are reviewed. This review is organized around a framework that distinguishes between structural and interpersonal process views of implementation. Insights for the implementation researcher are highlighted. Finally, future directions for implementation research are proposed.
---
paper_title: Belaboring the Not-So-Obvious: Consensus, Commitment, and Strategy Implementation Speed and Success

paper_content:

One of the accepted beliefs among strategic management researchers is that strategic decision consensus among decision-makers facilitates decision implementation speed and implementation success. Despite this belief, there has been little empirical research directly examining these relationships. Using hierarchical regression, this study examines the effects of strategic decision consensus and commitment on decision implementation speed and success. Results from a sample of 68 intact strategic decision-making teams in Southeastern United States hospitals support the normatively accepted ideal that decision consensus helps build decision commitment, which in turn positively affects implementation success. Contrary to our expectations, however, decision commitment serves to slow implementation speed. The implications of these results for consensus and implementation research are discussed.
---
paper_title: The strategy process, middle management involvement, and organizational performance

paper_content:

This paper reports the results of a study investigating the strategic involvement of middlelevel 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.
---
paper_title: Implementing marketing strategies: Developing and testing a managerial theory.

paper_content:

Implementation pervades strategic performance. It is a critical link between the formulation of marketing strategies and the achievement of superior organizational performance. Research conducted i...
---
paper_title: The strategic implementation process: evoking strategic consensus through communication

paper_content:

Abstract Effective strategy implementation is predicated on the assumption that functional areas within the firm have a basic understanding of the strategy. Termed strategic consensus, this concept refers to the extent to which intraorganizational perceptions converge on shared understandings of strategic priorities. The present study provides an initial exploration of consensus, supporting the viability of frequent vertical communication as a means by which strategic consensus may be enhanced. The performance implications of vertical communication and consensus reaffirm the important roles that frequent communication and shared understandings play in the implementation process. Specifically, when vertical communication is frequent, strategic consensus is enhanced and organizational performance improves, as evidenced by higher levels of net operating income, gross revenues, and growth in net revenues. And, in firms where the marketing executive's interpretation of strategy aligns with the chief executive officer's (CEO) perspective (i.e., strategic consensus), organizations are rewarded with higher levels of both marketing and organizational performance.
---
paper_title: Successfully Implementing Strategic Decisions

paper_content:

Although strategy implementation is viewed as an integral part of the strategic management process, little has been written or researched on it. The overwhelming majority of the literature so far has been on the long-range planning process itself or the actual content of the strategy being formulated. We have so far been giving lip service to the other side of the coin, namely strategy implementation. Consequently, it is not surprising that after a comprehensive strategy or single strategic decision has been formulated, significant difficulties are often encountered during the subsequent implementation process.
---
paper_title: Strategy implementation versus middle management self-interest

paper_content:

This article suggests that middle managers with low or negative commitment to the strategies formulated by senior management create significant obstacles to effective implementation.
---
paper_title: A Contingency Approach to Strategy Implementation at the Business-Unit Level: Integrating Administrative Mechanisms with Strategy

paper_content:

This study focused on what is perhaps the most critical aspect of strategy implementation in large, multibusiness organizations: recognizing that different business units within the same corporation often pursue different strategies and that the administrative mechanisms that corporate headquarters use to manage those businesses should differ. This study compared the results of bivariate and systems approaches to fit. Implications of the results for theory development and managerial practice are discussed.
---
paper_title: Generic business strategies, organizational context and performance: An empirical investigation

paper_content:

Some of the common organizational requirements prescribed for generic business strategies of cost leadership and differentiation are empirically examined in a study consisting of 69 business units. The results suggest the fit between business unit strategy and the internal organization of multi-business companies does have an effect upon business unit performance.
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paper_title: SBU Strategies, Corporate-SBU Relations, and SBU Effectiveness in Strategy Implementation

paper_content:

In a departure from earlier studies focusing only on the effects of corporate strategies, this study examined the effects of strategic business units' (SBUs') strategies on the utility of various states of corporate-SBU relations. For SBUs trying to build market share or to pursue differentiation as a competitive strategy, openness in corporate-SBU relations and subjectivity in performance assessment were found to be positively associated with effectiveness; for SBUs trying lo maximize short-term earnings or to pursue low cost as a competitive strategy, the corresponding associations were found to be negative. In contrast, corporate-SBU decentralization emerged as positively associated with SBUs' effectiveness irrespective of their strategic contexts; although SBUs' competitive strategies moderated the magnitude of that association, their strategic missions did not.
---
paper_title: The Eclectic Roots of Strategy Implementation Research

paper_content:

Abstract The researcher interested in strategy implementation faces a formidable challenge. Although this area has drawn many calls for research attention, there is not a deep and cohesive body of prior literature on which to draw in developing new efforts. This study proposes that through taking a broadened perspective of the nature of implementation, a range of valuable insights for the implementation researcher is available. First, various conceptualizations and definitions of implementation that have been proposed are considered. Next, a broad range of literature fields that have direct and indirect implications for the study of strategy implementation are reviewed. This review is organized around a framework that distinguishes between structural and interpersonal process views of implementation. Insights for the implementation researcher are highlighted. Finally, future directions for implementation research are proposed.
---
paper_title: The importance of structure and process to strategy implementation

paper_content:

Abstract A study involving over 200 senior managers demonstrates that overall firm performance is strongly influenced by how well a firm's business strategy is matched to its organizational structure and the behavioral norms of its employees. The authors identify a taxonomy comprised of four different combinations of structure/behavior types, which they label as: Management Dominant, Customer-Centric Innovators, Customer-Centric Cost Controllers, and Middle Ground. These alternative structure/behavior types are then matched with specific business strategies (i.e., Prospectors, Analyzers, Low Cost Defenders, Differentiated Defenders) in order to identify which combination(s) of structures and behaviors best serve to facilitate the process of implementing a specific strategy.
---
paper_title: Exploring barriers to the successful implementation of a formulated strategy

paper_content:

This paper reports a case study conducted to identify barriers to the successful implementation of activities as part of a planned strategy in a Norwegian ferry-cruise company. Data were gathered among workers on one of the company's vessels using a structured sequence of questions with open-ended answers. Our findings indicate that various types of communication problem which may be influenced to some extent by the organizational structure, constitute the key barriers to the implementation of planned strategic activities.
---
paper_title: A Strategy Implementation Perspective of Market Orientation

paper_content:

The authors conceptually and empirically explore the role of market orientation in the context of strategy implementation. Specifically, market orientation plays a key role for the successful implementation of a premium product differentiation (PPD) strategy. This result is based on the empirical findings from an international study that shows the performance effect of a PPD strategy is to a significant extent mediated through the construct of market orientation. Implications for future research and managerial practice are discussed.
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paper_title: Global Strategy Implementation at the Business Unit Level: Operational Capabilities and Administrative Mechanisms

paper_content:

The study examines the impact of internationally strategy on organizational design and the influence of the organizational design on effectiveness at the business unit level. The empirical findings are based on survey responses from eighty-two business units competing in global industries. The findings are supportive of the contingency notion which suggests that business unit effectiveness is a function of the fit between the international strategy and the organizational design.
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paper_title: Implementing business unit strategies: the role of management control systems

paper_content:

This study examines in detail how the toolmakers, Sandvik Bahco have designed and used their management control system to implement their chosen differentiation strategy. Unlike most other studies in this area we have chosen to describe and analyse the control system at the management and the operational levels. The study shows that changes in the learning process at the operational level elicit a need for more, and more comprehensive, information. This means that the borderline between the control systems at the two organisational levels is beginning to dissolve. However, it becomes no less necessary that a control system should be highly adaptable. Rather, it is a question of using a frame of reference that is partially common to the two organisational levels in order to create a meaningful dialogue between them. In this way it is possible to facilitate the choice of strategic orientation as well as its implementation.
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paper_title: OBSTACLES TO STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION IN A NATIONALIZED INDUSTRY[1]

paper_content:

Implementation of policy or strategy in the public sector has attracted a growing interest in the U.S.A. (Bardach, 1977; Derthick, 1972; Pressman and Wildavsky, 1973) and more recently in the U.K. (Dunsire, 1978; Levitt, 1980; S.S.R.C., 1979). the emphasis in this stream of work is on centre-periphery relationships and their respective uses of power and authority and on interorganizational relationships. This emphasis probably stems from the overt independence of local Government and some other public bodies from central Government in their appointment, composition, manner of carrying out their duties and, in resource terms, raising revenue. In large ‘commercial’ organizations, centre-periphery relations have tended to be viewed more in terms of the formal organizational structure and have attracted less research attention. ::: ::: ::: ::: A complementary but distinct stream of research, offering many parallels and useful insights into management science/O.R. implementation, has grown from the early work of Churchman and Scheinblatt (1965) - for example Schultz and Slevin (1975), Doktor et al. (1979). This second stream concentrates more on technical, operational aspects and largely ignores power relations which are assumed to correspond closely to the formal organization structure. A third stream of research has emerged from the strategic management literature (Ansoff, 1979; Anthony, 1965; Lewin, 1981; Steiner and Miner, 1977). Here the emphasis has been on budgeting and control though the scope has broadened to embrace e.g. considerations of power. A fourth related contributor, drawn on mainly by the policy and strategy streams and largely ignored in the public policy literature, is the organizational behaviour literature with its work on the exercise of power in organizations (for example, Cyert and March, 1963; Mumford and Pettigrew, 1975). ::: ::: ::: ::: In the study to be described here, which predates privatization, insights have been drawn from, and relationships established between, each of these streams of work, none of which has yet produced a comprehensive theory of implementation; regretably it remains beyond the scope of this study to do so. Hypotheses have emerged from the study which are offered as a contribution to theory buiding in implementation. It is hoped that they, in combination with findings from other research, will bring nearer the goal of a comprehensive theory of implementation as a guide to planning and action applicable to both the public and private sectors. ::: ::: ::: ::: While there have been some empirical studies of strategy formulation, little field research has been undertaken on implementation (Bardach, 1977; Hofer, 1976; Schultz and Slevin, 1975).
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paper_title: Successfully Implementing Strategic Decisions

paper_content:

Although strategy implementation is viewed as an integral part of the strategic management process, little has been written or researched on it. The overwhelming majority of the literature so far has been on the long-range planning process itself or the actual content of the strategy being formulated. We have so far been giving lip service to the other side of the coin, namely strategy implementation. Consequently, it is not surprising that after a comprehensive strategy or single strategic decision has been formulated, significant difficulties are often encountered during the subsequent implementation process.
---
paper_title: The Eclectic Roots of Strategy Implementation Research

paper_content:

Abstract The researcher interested in strategy implementation faces a formidable challenge. Although this area has drawn many calls for research attention, there is not a deep and cohesive body of prior literature on which to draw in developing new efforts. This study proposes that through taking a broadened perspective of the nature of implementation, a range of valuable insights for the implementation researcher is available. First, various conceptualizations and definitions of implementation that have been proposed are considered. Next, a broad range of literature fields that have direct and indirect implications for the study of strategy implementation are reviewed. This review is organized around a framework that distinguishes between structural and interpersonal process views of implementation. Insights for the implementation researcher are highlighted. Finally, future directions for implementation research are proposed.
---
paper_title: Exploring barriers to the successful implementation of a formulated strategy

paper_content:

This paper reports a case study conducted to identify barriers to the successful implementation of activities as part of a planned strategy in a Norwegian ferry-cruise company. Data were gathered among workers on one of the company's vessels using a structured sequence of questions with open-ended answers. Our findings indicate that various types of communication problem which may be influenced to some extent by the organizational structure, constitute the key barriers to the implementation of planned strategic activities.
---
paper_title: Implementing marketing strategies: Developing and testing a managerial theory.

paper_content:

Implementation pervades strategic performance. It is a critical link between the formulation of marketing strategies and the achievement of superior organizational performance. Research conducted i...
---
paper_title: A STUDY OF ORGANIZATIONAL 'FRAMEWORK' AND 'PROCESS' MODALITIES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF BUSINESS-LEVEL STRATEGIC DECISIONS*

paper_content:

Abstract : Based on structuration theory, organization framework and process are proposed as two modalities for implementing intended business-level strategies. A model is developed in which the components of these two modalities and related to the implementation of low cost and differentiation strategies. The implementation of fifty-seven strategies in integrated circuits, petroleum, and health care firms are used to test the research hypotheses. The findings suggest that strategy implementation in these firms utilized both framework and process structural elements, but that a different implementation gestalt characterized each strategy. Implications for strategy implementation and for structuration theory are discussed.
---
paper_title: The Eight ‘S’s of successful strategy execution

paper_content:

Abstract As the business environment becomes more complex and more changeful, the need to reformulate strategy and/or to adjust elements of the existing strategy becomes more frequent. As a result senior executives find themselves confronted with the need to integrate a number of changes in the execution of the new or revised strategy. This dissemination and integration of execution actions is especially difficult across cross-functional activities. The ‘8 “S”s of Strategy Execution’ is a heuristic that enables senior management to more readily enact, monitor, and assess the cross functional execution of strategies, new or revised. The 8 ‘S’s model is a revision of the original McKinsey 7 ‘S’s model. The most significant change comes in the deletion of skills from the McKinsey model and the addition of reSources in its place. Furthermore, Strategic Performance has been added to the model to help focus the strategy execution effort.
---
paper_title: Key success factors for strategy implementation in Latin America

paper_content:

Increasing competition among Latin American firms fosters more proactive processes aimed at reviewing business strategy. The research objective is to measure the impact of key variables on successful implementation of business strategy. Relying on the knowledge and experience of Latin American entrepreneurs and managers, the questions addressed include: How important is the role of the CEO and management actors? Do firms prioritize actions prior to implementing strategy? Are control and follow-up tools valued? How is a successful strategy implementation ensured? Research findings are expected to provide useful knowledge for management decision processes relating to successful implementation of business strategy.
---
paper_title: Towards a strategy implementation framework

paper_content:

Aims to develop an implementation framework. Further to a critical review of previous research, ten implementation variables were identified and a conceptual framework constructed. The implementation process of a strategic decision was investigated in two international hotel groups via in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews, observations and documentation analysis. The initial conceptual framework was found to be useful as it grouped key variables together and illustrated their roles when implementing strategic decisions. Three new variables, however, emerged from the findings; namely, multiple project implementation, organisational learning and working with external companies. A revised framework was then proposed and further explanations provided. Concludes by emphasising the importance of contextual variables in implementation and dispels the strategic management notion of “fit”.
---
paper_title: Strategy Implementation: The Impact of Demographic Characteristics on the Level of Support Received by Middle Managers

paper_content:

■ Middle managers of contemporary organizations play an important role in ensuring successful strategy implementation, which requires top managers to provide adequate support to them. One of the key factors determining the level of support is the demographic characteristics of middle managers. ■ This article examines the impact of a middle manager's demographic characteristics on the level of support received during strategy implementation. Factors needed for successful strategy implementation are used to measure the level of support received by middle managers in the marketing department of selected UK private companies.
---
paper_title: The Eclectic Roots of Strategy Implementation Research

paper_content:

Abstract The researcher interested in strategy implementation faces a formidable challenge. Although this area has drawn many calls for research attention, there is not a deep and cohesive body of prior literature on which to draw in developing new efforts. This study proposes that through taking a broadened perspective of the nature of implementation, a range of valuable insights for the implementation researcher is available. First, various conceptualizations and definitions of implementation that have been proposed are considered. Next, a broad range of literature fields that have direct and indirect implications for the study of strategy implementation are reviewed. This review is organized around a framework that distinguishes between structural and interpersonal process views of implementation. Insights for the implementation researcher are highlighted. Finally, future directions for implementation research are proposed.
---
paper_title: Performance in adolescent, technology-based firms: Product strategy, implementation, and synergy

paper_content:

Abstract Based on a sample of “adolescent” firms in technology-based industries, this study analyzes the effects on performance of two aspects of product strategy-product leadership and product/market focus, two aspects of strategic implementation-stakeholder input and employee empowerment, and the interaction of product strategy and strategic implementation variables. Five aspects of performance are examined, including growth rate, R&D, profit, financial stability, and future prospects.
---
paper_title: Middle management involvement in strategy and its association with strategic type: A research note

paper_content:

This paper reports the results of a study that investigated the strategic involvement of 259 middle managers in 25 organizations. Drawing from previous clinical research, a theoretical typology of middle management roles in strategy is developed. Measures for each role are derived, and the relationship between middle management strategic involvement and Miles and Snow's (1978) strategic type is examined. Results suggest the usefulness of these measures in assessing both the level and type of middle management strategic activity. In addition, the findings show that middle managers in Prospectors report significantly higher levels of upward and divergent forms of strategic involvement than those in Analyzers and Defenders. Traditionally, middle-level managers have not been considered part of the strategy process except in providing informational inputs and directing implementation. Contemporary theory and descriptions suggest, however, that middle managers regularly attempt to influence strategy and often provide the impetus for new initiatives (Burgelman, 1983a,b; Mintzberg and Waters, 1985). Bower (1970) was one of the first to recognize the contributions of middle managers: they '... are the only men [sic] in the organization who are in a position to judge whether [strategic] issues are being considered in the proper context' (297-298). More recently, empirical research has confirmed middle management's upward influence on strategic decisions (Schilit, 1987)
---
paper_title: The Eight ‘S’s of successful strategy execution

paper_content:

Abstract As the business environment becomes more complex and more changeful, the need to reformulate strategy and/or to adjust elements of the existing strategy becomes more frequent. As a result senior executives find themselves confronted with the need to integrate a number of changes in the execution of the new or revised strategy. This dissemination and integration of execution actions is especially difficult across cross-functional activities. The ‘8 “S”s of Strategy Execution’ is a heuristic that enables senior management to more readily enact, monitor, and assess the cross functional execution of strategies, new or revised. The 8 ‘S’s model is a revision of the original McKinsey 7 ‘S’s model. The most significant change comes in the deletion of skills from the McKinsey model and the addition of reSources in its place. Furthermore, Strategic Performance has been added to the model to help focus the strategy execution effort.
---
paper_title: Business Unit Strategy, Managerial Characteristics, and Business Unit Effectiveness at Strategy Implementation

paper_content:

Data from 58 strategic business units (SBUs) reveal that greater marketing/sales experience, greater willingness to take risk, and greater tolerance for ambiguity on the part of the SBU general manager contribute to effectiveness in the case of “build” SBUs but hamper it in the case of “harvest” SBUs.
---
paper_title: Middle-manager effort in strategy implementation: A multinational perspective

paper_content:

Too little is known about middle manager involvement in the implementation of strategic change. Even less is known about how that may occur in a multinational context. One of the few systematic studies of middle manager implementation effort was done by Guth and MacMillan (1986). Our study refined Guth and MacMillan's insights by identifying the relative importance of the three determinants of implementation effort; perceived ability, perceived probability of success, and perceived consistency between personal goals and the strategic change goals. As a further extension of this theory, we found that the personal characteristics of the middle managers influenced their perceptions. Furthermore, national culture was found to moderate the relationship between middle managers' personal characteristics and their perceptions. In sum, this study refines and extends our understanding of the strategy implementation literature.
---
paper_title: Key success factors for strategy implementation in Latin America

paper_content:

Increasing competition among Latin American firms fosters more proactive processes aimed at reviewing business strategy. The research objective is to measure the impact of key variables on successful implementation of business strategy. Relying on the knowledge and experience of Latin American entrepreneurs and managers, the questions addressed include: How important is the role of the CEO and management actors? Do firms prioritize actions prior to implementing strategy? Are control and follow-up tools valued? How is a successful strategy implementation ensured? Research findings are expected to provide useful knowledge for management decision processes relating to successful implementation of business strategy.
---
paper_title: Strategy Implementation: The Impact of Demographic Characteristics on the Level of Support Received by Middle Managers

paper_content:

■ Middle managers of contemporary organizations play an important role in ensuring successful strategy implementation, which requires top managers to provide adequate support to them. One of the key factors determining the level of support is the demographic characteristics of middle managers. ■ This article examines the impact of a middle manager's demographic characteristics on the level of support received during strategy implementation. Factors needed for successful strategy implementation are used to measure the level of support received by middle managers in the marketing department of selected UK private companies.
---
paper_title: Strategy implementation versus middle management self-interest

paper_content:

This article suggests that middle managers with low or negative commitment to the strategies formulated by senior management create significant obstacles to effective implementation.
---
paper_title: The strategy process, middle management involvement, and organizational performance

paper_content:

This paper reports the results of a study investigating the strategic involvement of middlelevel 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.
---
paper_title: Implementing marketing strategies: Developing and testing a managerial theory.

paper_content:

Implementation pervades strategic performance. It is a critical link between the formulation of marketing strategies and the achievement of superior organizational performance. Research conducted i...
---
paper_title: The strategic implementation process: evoking strategic consensus through communication

paper_content:

Abstract Effective strategy implementation is predicated on the assumption that functional areas within the firm have a basic understanding of the strategy. Termed strategic consensus, this concept refers to the extent to which intraorganizational perceptions converge on shared understandings of strategic priorities. The present study provides an initial exploration of consensus, supporting the viability of frequent vertical communication as a means by which strategic consensus may be enhanced. The performance implications of vertical communication and consensus reaffirm the important roles that frequent communication and shared understandings play in the implementation process. Specifically, when vertical communication is frequent, strategic consensus is enhanced and organizational performance improves, as evidenced by higher levels of net operating income, gross revenues, and growth in net revenues. And, in firms where the marketing executive's interpretation of strategy aligns with the chief executive officer's (CEO) perspective (i.e., strategic consensus), organizations are rewarded with higher levels of both marketing and organizational performance.
---
paper_title: Managing strategic consensus: the foundation of effective implementation.

paper_content:

Executive Overview A frequent complaint of senior executives is that middle and operating managers fail to take the actions necessary to implement strategy. As one top manager told us. “It's been rather easy for us to decide where we wanted to go. The hard part is to get the organization to act on the new priorities.” Implementation problems of this type are often the result of poor middle management understanding and commitment to strategy. In our research we've found that relatively few middle managers articulate the same goals as their superiors. More troublesome, other researchers have found that middle managers who disagree with strategic initiatives frequently work against their implementation. This article examines an approach to implementation that focuses on the level of strategic understanding and commitment shared by managers within the organization. A framework identifying four categories of strategic consensus is introduced and used as the basis for analyzing differences in how managers perce...
---
paper_title: Consensus‐Performance Research: Theoretical and Empirical Extensions*

paper_content:

Research on the consensus-performance relationship has typically used correlational data to examine the simple, bivariate relationship between top management team consensus and firm performance. the results of this research are equivocal. Recent theoretical work, however, suggests a number of ‘third variables’ that may provide additional insight into the consensus-performance relationship through the ‘process of elaboration’. This paper presents theoretical models, based on recent theory building, that may be appropriate for incorporating these additional variables in future research.
---
paper_title: Marketing's contribution to the implementation of business strategy: an empirical analysis

paper_content:

This paper describes a study that assesses the performance implications of matching marketing strategy to business strategy. In order to conduct this study we first reviewed the literature on marketing strategy to identify its key dimensions. We then conducted a survey of 1000 senior marketing executives about the strategic marketing practices adopted in their respective firms or business units, and developed scales to describe 11 strategic marketing activities. We next performed a K-means cluster analysis using these scales to develop a taxonomy of marketing strategy types consisting of: Aggressive Marketers, Mass Marketers, Marketing Minimizers, and Value Marketers. We then observed that superior performance at the firm or SBU level was achieved when specific marketing strategy types were matched with appropriate Miles and Snow (1978) business strategy types. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
---
paper_title: Explanations from the marketing/human resources dyad for marketing strategy implementation effectiveness in service firms

paper_content:

Abstract The marketing strategy literature is often criticized for the dearth of conceptual, theoretical, and empirical studies focusing on antecedents to effective marketing strategy implementation. Despite some related research on the constituency-based theory of the firm, even less is understood concerning the interplay between functional areas on marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. We examine the marketing/human resources (HR) dyad and contribute to this limited platform of knowledge by testing a set of eight hypotheses that forms the basis of the model in which six process-based organization dimensions are considered to be related to the psychosocial outcomes of relationship effectiveness and interfunctional conflict. These, in turn, are hypothesized to impact upon the behavioral outcome of marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. The data that are used to test these relationships are generated from 230 medium and large European service-based firms. While we find that psychosocial outcomes do have important effects on marketing strategy implementation effectiveness, a paradox is observed in the effects of process-based dimensions upon psychosocial outcomes. These findings are interpreted and discussed in the context of existing literature and a number of implications are drawn.
---
paper_title: Towards a strategy implementation framework

paper_content:

Aims to develop an implementation framework. Further to a critical review of previous research, ten implementation variables were identified and a conceptual framework constructed. The implementation process of a strategic decision was investigated in two international hotel groups via in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews, observations and documentation analysis. The initial conceptual framework was found to be useful as it grouped key variables together and illustrated their roles when implementing strategic decisions. Three new variables, however, emerged from the findings; namely, multiple project implementation, organisational learning and working with external companies. A revised framework was then proposed and further explanations provided. Concludes by emphasising the importance of contextual variables in implementation and dispels the strategic management notion of “fit”.
---
paper_title: Marketing's Role in the Implementation of Business Strategies: A Critical Review and Conceptual Framework:

paper_content:

The authors review and integrate various theoretical perspectives, normative statements, and pieces of empirical evidence about the organizational structures and processes best suited for implement...
---
paper_title: SBU Strategies, Corporate-SBU Relations, and SBU Effectiveness in Strategy Implementation

paper_content:

In a departure from earlier studies focusing only on the effects of corporate strategies, this study examined the effects of strategic business units' (SBUs') strategies on the utility of various states of corporate-SBU relations. For SBUs trying to build market share or to pursue differentiation as a competitive strategy, openness in corporate-SBU relations and subjectivity in performance assessment were found to be positively associated with effectiveness; for SBUs trying lo maximize short-term earnings or to pursue low cost as a competitive strategy, the corresponding associations were found to be negative. In contrast, corporate-SBU decentralization emerged as positively associated with SBUs' effectiveness irrespective of their strategic contexts; although SBUs' competitive strategies moderated the magnitude of that association, their strategic missions did not.
---
paper_title: Successfully Implementing Strategic Decisions

paper_content:

Although strategy implementation is viewed as an integral part of the strategic management process, little has been written or researched on it. The overwhelming majority of the literature so far has been on the long-range planning process itself or the actual content of the strategy being formulated. We have so far been giving lip service to the other side of the coin, namely strategy implementation. Consequently, it is not surprising that after a comprehensive strategy or single strategic decision has been formulated, significant difficulties are often encountered during the subsequent implementation process.
---
paper_title: The Eclectic Roots of Strategy Implementation Research

paper_content:

Abstract The researcher interested in strategy implementation faces a formidable challenge. Although this area has drawn many calls for research attention, there is not a deep and cohesive body of prior literature on which to draw in developing new efforts. This study proposes that through taking a broadened perspective of the nature of implementation, a range of valuable insights for the implementation researcher is available. First, various conceptualizations and definitions of implementation that have been proposed are considered. Next, a broad range of literature fields that have direct and indirect implications for the study of strategy implementation are reviewed. This review is organized around a framework that distinguishes between structural and interpersonal process views of implementation. Insights for the implementation researcher are highlighted. Finally, future directions for implementation research are proposed.
---
paper_title: The impact of marketing/HR interactions on marketing strategy implementation

paper_content:

It is increasingly being recognised that cross‐unit working relationships have a key role to play in the successful implementation of marketing decisions. Although there is a substantial body of literature on marketing's interactions with other functions, particularly technical units such as R&D, within the context of the new product development (NPD) process, linkages between marketing and human resources (HR) have not been empirically investigated although they are widely advocated in both the marketing and HR management literatures. The conceptual model presented and tested in this paper focuses on the antecedents of effective marketing/HR interactions and posits successful marketing strategy implementation as an outcome of these. Results from a study of UK service organisations suggest that implementation effectiveness is affected negatively by conflict and positively by communication and specifically, interpersonal, not written. In turn, these interdepartmental dynamics are affected by senior managem...
---
paper_title: Belaboring the Not-So-Obvious: Consensus, Commitment, and Strategy Implementation Speed and Success

paper_content:

One of the accepted beliefs among strategic management researchers is that strategic decision consensus among decision-makers facilitates decision implementation speed and implementation success. Despite this belief, there has been little empirical research directly examining these relationships. Using hierarchical regression, this study examines the effects of strategic decision consensus and commitment on decision implementation speed and success. Results from a sample of 68 intact strategic decision-making teams in Southeastern United States hospitals support the normatively accepted ideal that decision consensus helps build decision commitment, which in turn positively affects implementation success. Contrary to our expectations, however, decision commitment serves to slow implementation speed. The implications of these results for consensus and implementation research are discussed.
---
paper_title: Strategy implementation versus middle management self-interest

paper_content:

This article suggests that middle managers with low or negative commitment to the strategies formulated by senior management create significant obstacles to effective implementation.
---
paper_title: Implementing global strategies: The role of procedural justice

paper_content:

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.
---
paper_title: A Contingency Approach to Strategy Implementation at the Business-Unit Level: Integrating Administrative Mechanisms with Strategy

paper_content:

This study focused on what is perhaps the most critical aspect of strategy implementation in large, multibusiness organizations: recognizing that different business units within the same corporation often pursue different strategies and that the administrative mechanisms that corporate headquarters use to manage those businesses should differ. This study compared the results of bivariate and systems approaches to fit. Implications of the results for theory development and managerial practice are discussed.
---
paper_title: Marketing's Role in the Implementation of Business Strategies: A Critical Review and Conceptual Framework:

paper_content:

The authors review and integrate various theoretical perspectives, normative statements, and pieces of empirical evidence about the organizational structures and processes best suited for implement...
---
paper_title: Strategy implementation versus middle management self-interest

paper_content:

This article suggests that middle managers with low or negative commitment to the strategies formulated by senior management create significant obstacles to effective implementation.
---
paper_title: Middle Management’s Strategic Influence and Organizational Performance

paper_content:

This study investigated relationships between middle managers’ formal position, their strategic influence and organizational performance. Among the 259 middle managers represented in the study, managers with formal positions in boundary–spanning sub–units reported higher levels of strategic influence activity than others. At the organizational level of analysis, the study found that firm performance was associated with more uniform levels of downward strategic influence, and more varied levels of upward influence among middle management cohorts. The findings suggest that middle managers’ strategic influence arises from their ability to mediate between internal and external selection environments. In addition, positive effects on organizational performance appear to depend on: (1) whether the overall pattern of upward influence is conducive to shifts in the network centrality of individual managers; and (2) whether the pattern of downward influence is consistent with an appropriate balance between the organization’s need for control and flexibility.
---
paper_title: Strategic Governance: how to assess board effectiveness in guiding strategy execution

paper_content:

Subsequent to a host of corporate corruption scandals, boards of directors are facing amplified pressure from investors, creditors and shareholders in a bid to ensure effective corporate governance of their investments. In previous research and public debate, the effectiveness of corporate governance structures has come under close scrutiny. However, boards' effectiveness in fulfilling their strategic role by guiding strategy execution mostly has been left unaddressed. Due to the high degree of secrecy and sensitivity of strategy issues, boards' effectiveness in guiding strategy execution is much more difficult to assess externally compared to structural governance issues. Against the backdrop of these difficulties and based upon insights from strategy process research, we suggest taking "strategy consistency" between a firm's resource allocation and its announced strategy as a proxy for boards' effectiveness in guiding strategy execution. In doing so, the paper contributes to extant research by going beyond structural governance issues and paying direct attention to strategic governance issues. Specifically, the paper develops a new approach and set of standard measures to assess boards' effectiveness in strategy execution. Copyright (c) 2006 The Authors; Journal compilation (c) 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
---
paper_title: A STUDY OF ORGANIZATIONAL 'FRAMEWORK' AND 'PROCESS' MODALITIES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF BUSINESS-LEVEL STRATEGIC DECISIONS*

paper_content:

Abstract : Based on structuration theory, organization framework and process are proposed as two modalities for implementing intended business-level strategies. A model is developed in which the components of these two modalities and related to the implementation of low cost and differentiation strategies. The implementation of fifty-seven strategies in integrated circuits, petroleum, and health care firms are used to test the research hypotheses. The findings suggest that strategy implementation in these firms utilized both framework and process structural elements, but that a different implementation gestalt characterized each strategy. Implications for strategy implementation and for structuration theory are discussed.
---
paper_title: Critical tactics for implementing Porter's generic strategies

paper_content:

Purpose – To identify and cite examples of critical tactics for implementing Porter's generic strategies.Design/methodology/approach – A survey of over 200 organizations was conducted to determine their relative use of tactics and organizational performance. Factor analysis and regression analyses were used to identify tactics that were strongly related to organizational performance. Examples of implementation are presented to illustrate use of the critical tactics.Findings – A list of ten tactics were identified as significantly related with the generic strategies and higher levels of organizational performance.Research limitations/implications – As is typical with survey research, the convenience sample of organizations used in this survey may or may not be representative of all organizations. Also, when using regression analysis it is important to keep in mind that correlation does not necessarily mean causation. Therefore we are not certain that the significant tactics caused the higher levels of orga...
---
paper_title: Selecting tactics to implement strategic plans

paper_content:

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 this research for practicing managers are discussed.
---
paper_title: Managing strategic consensus: the foundation of effective implementation.

paper_content:

Executive Overview A frequent complaint of senior executives is that middle and operating managers fail to take the actions necessary to implement strategy. As one top manager told us. “It's been rather easy for us to decide where we wanted to go. The hard part is to get the organization to act on the new priorities.” Implementation problems of this type are often the result of poor middle management understanding and commitment to strategy. In our research we've found that relatively few middle managers articulate the same goals as their superiors. More troublesome, other researchers have found that middle managers who disagree with strategic initiatives frequently work against their implementation. This article examines an approach to implementation that focuses on the level of strategic understanding and commitment shared by managers within the organization. A framework identifying four categories of strategic consensus is introduced and used as the basis for analyzing differences in how managers perce...
---
paper_title: Global Strategy Implementation at the Business Unit Level: Operational Capabilities and Administrative Mechanisms

paper_content:

The study examines the impact of internationally strategy on organizational design and the influence of the organizational design on effectiveness at the business unit level. The empirical findings are based on survey responses from eighty-two business units competing in global industries. The findings are supportive of the contingency notion which suggests that business unit effectiveness is a function of the fit between the international strategy and the organizational design.
---
paper_title: Consensus‐Performance Research: Theoretical and Empirical Extensions*

paper_content:

Research on the consensus-performance relationship has typically used correlational data to examine the simple, bivariate relationship between top management team consensus and firm performance. the results of this research are equivocal. Recent theoretical work, however, suggests a number of ‘third variables’ that may provide additional insight into the consensus-performance relationship through the ‘process of elaboration’. This paper presents theoretical models, based on recent theory building, that may be appropriate for incorporating these additional variables in future research.
---
paper_title: Toward a Research Agenda on Top Management Teams and Strategy Implementation

paper_content:

Abstract This paper addresses the question, "What's next in research on top management teams and strategic effectiveness?" Specifically, we focus on the relationship between top management teams and strategy implementation and suggest that strategy implementation has been a missing link between strategy and performance. A research agenda to remedy this deficit is advanced. Research into the importance of top management has a long history. Initial studies of executive leadership focused on the impact of individual CEOs or general managers (Day & Lord,1988; Gupta & Govindarajan,1984; Lieberson & O'Connor, 1972; Miller & Toulouse, 1986; Thomas, 1988). More recent studies, driven by the theoretical constructs of the "dominant coalition" (Cyert & March, 1963) and the "upper echelon" (Hambrick & Mason,1984), have focused on top management teams. The preponderance of TMT research has been heavily influenced by the decision models of the Carnegie School (Cyert & March, 1963; March & Simon, 1958). The model, as articulated by Hambrick and Mason (1984), suggests that top managers affect organizational outcomes primarily through the decisions or "strategic choices" they make, decisions that are influenced by characteristics (including the cognitive biases and values) of the decision makers. Thus, research has focused on TMT-related factors thought to influence strategic decision-making by the team. While accepting the importance of this theoretical model, we believe that the body of research based on it suffers from three limitations. First, and most importantly, the model makes a significant jump from strategic choice (or strategy formulation) to organizational outcomes. The processes by which strategic choice is implemented- processes associated with what Mintzberg (1978) called "deliberate" strategy-have received little attention. Second, alternatives to the Carnegie decision model exist. Allison ( 1969), for example, suggests organizational process and bureaucratic political models of decision making in addition to the rational policy model. Indeed, the very term "dominant coalition" (Cyert & March, 1963) implies a political decision process. One might suspect that the influence decision makers have on organizational outcomes will vary depending on which decision model-or combination of models-is operative. Third, the decision model implicit in the TMT research begs the question of possibly significant differences between influence of the TMT on the pursuit of "intended" as compared to "emergent" strategies (Mintzberg, 1978). A growing literature on empowerment, self managed teams, and leadership suggests that the role of senior executives is changing from planners and directors to coaches and supporters (c.f., Flood, Gannon & Paauwe, 1996; Manz & Sims, 1993; Smith & Sims, 1995). Thus, the very assumption that TMTs influence organizational outcomes primarily through their influence on strategy formulation may need to be reconsidered. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is two-fold. First, we summarize the major themes in the TMT literature to demonstrate the current emphasis on rational strategy formulation. Although we believe that this literature is enlightening and important, we argue that the theoretical and empirical omission of implementation requires a significant leap in logic to link TMT characteristics and behaviors to organizational outcomes. Second, we suggest a number of research questions and methodological issues to be considered in developing a program of research designed to reduce this gap in our understanding of the strategic significance of TMTs. An Overview of Recent TMT Research Our discussion of the literature follows the general framework presented in Figure 1. This model was developed from an extensive review of the theoretical and empirical literature on top management teams and is presented as an organizing framework for our discussion. …
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paper_title: Implementing competitive strategies at the business unit level: Implications of matching managers to strategies

paper_content:

This paper argues that, for superior performance, it is necessary to attune the choice of the general manager to the strategy of the business unit (SBU). Data from 121 SBUs indicate that SBU competitive strategy interacts with several managerial orientations (functional background, locus of control, and problem-solving style) to influence SBU effectiveness. The theoretical and practical relevance of these findings are discussed, as are directions for future research.
---
paper_title: Implementing global strategies: The role of procedural justice

paper_content:

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.
---
paper_title: Middle-manager effort in strategy implementation: A multinational perspective

paper_content:

Too little is known about middle manager involvement in the implementation of strategic change. Even less is known about how that may occur in a multinational context. One of the few systematic studies of middle manager implementation effort was done by Guth and MacMillan (1986). Our study refined Guth and MacMillan's insights by identifying the relative importance of the three determinants of implementation effort; perceived ability, perceived probability of success, and perceived consistency between personal goals and the strategic change goals. As a further extension of this theory, we found that the personal characteristics of the middle managers influenced their perceptions. Furthermore, national culture was found to moderate the relationship between middle managers' personal characteristics and their perceptions. In sum, this study refines and extends our understanding of the strategy implementation literature.
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paper_title: A short, practical guide to implementing strategy

paper_content:

Purpose – Most strategies stumble in the implementation phase. This article outlines a market‐validated process, and practical guidelines, for optimizing implementation. The primary audience is mid‐level and senior executives charged with the responsibility for implementing strategy.Design/methodology/approach – This implementation process focuses on the critical timeframe immediately following formal strategy selection, when broad objectives need to be translated into specific actions, schedules, budgets, and metrics. The approach is to capture the key decisions in an accessible, common format, and to deploy this tool consistently throughout the organization to monitor and guide implementation. Dozens of firms across a wide array of industries have used the methodology, which derives from two decades of senior operating and strategy consulting experience.Findings – Strategy development receives significant attention and resources, but implementation is often neglected, with disastrous consequences. Using...
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paper_title: Tactics of Implementation

paper_content:

This study identified implementation tactics used by managers in making planned changes by profiling 91 case studies. Analysis revealed four types of tactics, variations within these tactics, and h...
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paper_title: A Contingency Approach to Strategy Implementation at the Business-Unit Level: Integrating Administrative Mechanisms with Strategy

paper_content:

This study focused on what is perhaps the most critical aspect of strategy implementation in large, multibusiness organizations: recognizing that different business units within the same corporation often pursue different strategies and that the administrative mechanisms that corporate headquarters use to manage those businesses should differ. This study compared the results of bivariate and systems approaches to fit. Implications of the results for theory development and managerial practice are discussed.
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paper_title: Implementing business unit strategies: the role of management control systems

paper_content:

This study examines in detail how the toolmakers, Sandvik Bahco have designed and used their management control system to implement their chosen differentiation strategy. Unlike most other studies in this area we have chosen to describe and analyse the control system at the management and the operational levels. The study shows that changes in the learning process at the operational level elicit a need for more, and more comprehensive, information. This means that the borderline between the control systems at the two organisational levels is beginning to dissolve. However, it becomes no less necessary that a control system should be highly adaptable. Rather, it is a question of using a frame of reference that is partially common to the two organisational levels in order to create a meaningful dialogue between them. In this way it is possible to facilitate the choice of strategic orientation as well as its implementation.
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paper_title: Generic business strategies, organizational context and performance: An empirical investigation

paper_content:

Some of the common organizational requirements prescribed for generic business strategies of cost leadership and differentiation are empirically examined in a study consisting of 69 business units. The results suggest the fit between business unit strategy and the internal organization of multi-business companies does have an effect upon business unit performance.
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paper_title: Identifying and appraising how managers install strategy

paper_content:

Cases were profiled to identify tactics used by strategic managers to implement strategy and to determine which tactic was the most effective in promoting adoption. Analysis revealed that four archetype tactics were used almost exclusively. An ‘interventionist’ approach had the best results but was used in only one case in five. ‘Persuasion’ and ‘participation’ were next most effective tactics, and ‘edicts’ the least effective. The implications of these findings for strategic management practice and the needs for further research are discussed.
---
paper_title: SBU Strategies, Corporate-SBU Relations, and SBU Effectiveness in Strategy Implementation

paper_content:

In a departure from earlier studies focusing only on the effects of corporate strategies, this study examined the effects of strategic business units' (SBUs') strategies on the utility of various states of corporate-SBU relations. For SBUs trying to build market share or to pursue differentiation as a competitive strategy, openness in corporate-SBU relations and subjectivity in performance assessment were found to be positively associated with effectiveness; for SBUs trying lo maximize short-term earnings or to pursue low cost as a competitive strategy, the corresponding associations were found to be negative. In contrast, corporate-SBU decentralization emerged as positively associated with SBUs' effectiveness irrespective of their strategic contexts; although SBUs' competitive strategies moderated the magnitude of that association, their strategic missions did not.
---
paper_title: Strategy implementation versus middle management self-interest

paper_content:

This article suggests that middle managers with low or negative commitment to the strategies formulated by senior management create significant obstacles to effective implementation.
---
paper_title: The strategy process, middle management involvement, and organizational performance

paper_content:

This paper reports the results of a study investigating the strategic involvement of middlelevel 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.
---
paper_title: Strategy Implementation Tactics as Response to Organizational, Strategic, and Environmental Imperatives **

paper_content:

Based on previous literature in the fields of strategy implementation and leadership research tactics for strategy implementation are identified. Three categories proved empirically valid in this study: autocratic tactics, participative tactics and tactics which rely on the given culture of the organization. The paper is based on the assumption that implementation in general is dependent on environmental, strategic and organizational variables. In this sense implementation tactics can be interpreted as genuine organizational behaviour. Based on a discussion of associations of implementation tactics with these variables it is hypothesized that the perception of environmental threats will lead to more autocratic tactics, whereas the existence of a formulated strategy will rather lead to more participative tactics. No such relationships are predicted for cultural tactics. A questionnaire-based measure of implementation tactics is tested in a sample of 136 Upper-Austrian firms by referring to implementation projects or strategy related issues. For a sub-sample (n=60) a moderated regression analysis on implementation tactics with measures of organizational structure, the environment, the strategy, and the interaction between environment and strategy as independent variables was performed. It shows that the use of autocratic tactics is significantly explained by environmental variables whereas participative tactics are significantly explained by the existence of a formulated strategy within the organization. For Culture as an implementation tactic only the interaction between environmental and strategic variables was a significant predictor. Implications for future theory building and empirical research into organizational behaviour in the context of strategy formulation and strategy implementation are discussed. Key words: Strategy Implementation; Implementation Tactics, Organizational Centralization, Uncertainty, Equivocality Many studies in the long tradition of organizational behaviour research could be qualified as general behavioural research, as long as they do not refer to idiosyncratic conditions within the organization. Rather then presenting new methodologies of research the aim of this paper is to seek new directions by explicitly linking behavioural inquiry to related fields in organizational research, in particular to organizational theory and to strategic management. This link is represented here through tactics of strategy implementation as behavioural patterns, which are dependent on environmental, organizational, and strategic conditions. There is still little research on strategy implementation, compared to the bulk of literature on the formulation and decision parts of the strategic process. Strategy implementation involves multiple levels of analysis which hinders the development of closed frameworks and of coherent streams of research. Consequently, researchers have taken a large diversity of perspectives on implementation (Noble, 1999). It has mainly been researched in regard to the fit between strategy and structure (e.g. Galbraith/Kazanjian 1986; Hrebaniak/Joyce 1984), building on the seminal work of Chandler (1962). This has been supplemented through studies of environmental and organizational contingencies for strategies (Damanpour 1996). A different research stream addresses implementation as a variant of leadership processes on a conceptual level (Bourgeois/Brodwin 1984) or empirically (e.g. Nutt 1986). The latter type of studies lacks explicit references to strategy content, with the exception of an empirical study using multiple case studies by Waldersee and Sheather (1996). Some studies link strategy type (Hambrick/Mason 1984; Miller/Toulouse 1986; Miller/Kets de Vries/ Toulouse 1982; Szilagy/Schweiger 1984) or implementation (Gupta/Govindarajan 1984; Govindarajan 1989; Nutt 1995) to managerial characteristics. However, there is a growing literature on the resource-based view (Wernerfelt 1989; Barney 1991) or competence-based view (German/Thomas 1997) of the firm, emphasizing the importance of organizational processes and capabilities for sustained competitive advantage. …
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paper_title: Performance in adolescent, technology-based firms: Product strategy, implementation, and synergy

paper_content:

Abstract Based on a sample of “adolescent” firms in technology-based industries, this study analyzes the effects on performance of two aspects of product strategy-product leadership and product/market focus, two aspects of strategic implementation-stakeholder input and employee empowerment, and the interaction of product strategy and strategic implementation variables. Five aspects of performance are examined, including growth rate, R&D, profit, financial stability, and future prospects.
---
paper_title: Implementing marketing strategies: Developing and testing a managerial theory.

paper_content:

Implementation pervades strategic performance. It is a critical link between the formulation of marketing strategies and the achievement of superior organizational performance. Research conducted i...
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paper_title: Strategic implementation: Five approaches to an elusive phenomenon

paper_content:

The traditional textbook approach to strategy implementation was to treat ‘implementation’ as an activity following ‘formulation’. Usually, the topic was treated as a question of organization design, where systems and structures were manipulated in concert with strategic goals. More recent views treat implementation either as an issue of gaining prior group commitment through coalitional decision-making, or as a question of total organizational involvement through a strong corporate culture. This paper reviews the evolution of these approaches, developing four models to characterize them, and suggests a fifth one, with strategy emerging in an almost-implemented form from within the firm.
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paper_title: Selecting tactics to implement strategic plans

paper_content:

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 this research for practicing managers are discussed.
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paper_title: Incorporating cognitive aids into decision support systems: the case of the strategy execution process

paper_content:

Abstract To ease the access to data bases for the casual user, a system called SMARTY has been developed as an intelligent front end to the relational data base management system SQL/DS. A user only needs to specify the data attributes and possibly their value ranges which he wants to be displayed. SMARTY will test the meaningfulness of this request for information and subsequently generate and execute the SQL statements for deriving the information from SQL relations. SMARTY is capable of extracting or aggregating detailed information in a company database. It can be regarded as an expert system on top of a relational DBMS to improve the user interface, or as a query system to a universal relation. SMARTY was written in Prolog. Both Prolog and SQL/DS are running under the IBM operating system VM/SP 3.
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paper_title: Implementing competitive strategies at the business unit level: Implications of matching managers to strategies

paper_content:

This paper argues that, for superior performance, it is necessary to attune the choice of the general manager to the strategy of the business unit (SBU). Data from 121 SBUs indicate that SBU competitive strategy interacts with several managerial orientations (functional background, locus of control, and problem-solving style) to influence SBU effectiveness. The theoretical and practical relevance of these findings are discussed, as are directions for future research.
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paper_title: Implementing global strategies: The role of procedural justice

paper_content:

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.
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paper_title: Business Unit Strategy, Managerial Characteristics, and Business Unit Effectiveness at Strategy Implementation

paper_content:

Data from 58 strategic business units (SBUs) reveal that greater marketing/sales experience, greater willingness to take risk, and greater tolerance for ambiguity on the part of the SBU general manager contribute to effectiveness in the case of “build” SBUs but hamper it in the case of “harvest” SBUs.
---
paper_title: A Contingency Approach to Strategy Implementation at the Business-Unit Level: Integrating Administrative Mechanisms with Strategy

paper_content:

This study focused on what is perhaps the most critical aspect of strategy implementation in large, multibusiness organizations: recognizing that different business units within the same corporation often pursue different strategies and that the administrative mechanisms that corporate headquarters use to manage those businesses should differ. This study compared the results of bivariate and systems approaches to fit. Implications of the results for theory development and managerial practice are discussed.
---
paper_title: Marketing's Role in the Implementation of Business Strategies: A Critical Review and Conceptual Framework:

paper_content:

The authors review and integrate various theoretical perspectives, normative statements, and pieces of empirical evidence about the organizational structures and processes best suited for implement...
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paper_title: OBSTACLES TO STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION IN A NATIONALIZED INDUSTRY[1]

paper_content:

Implementation of policy or strategy in the public sector has attracted a growing interest in the U.S.A. (Bardach, 1977; Derthick, 1972; Pressman and Wildavsky, 1973) and more recently in the U.K. (Dunsire, 1978; Levitt, 1980; S.S.R.C., 1979). the emphasis in this stream of work is on centre-periphery relationships and their respective uses of power and authority and on interorganizational relationships. This emphasis probably stems from the overt independence of local Government and some other public bodies from central Government in their appointment, composition, manner of carrying out their duties and, in resource terms, raising revenue. In large ‘commercial’ organizations, centre-periphery relations have tended to be viewed more in terms of the formal organizational structure and have attracted less research attention. ::: ::: ::: ::: A complementary but distinct stream of research, offering many parallels and useful insights into management science/O.R. implementation, has grown from the early work of Churchman and Scheinblatt (1965) - for example Schultz and Slevin (1975), Doktor et al. (1979). This second stream concentrates more on technical, operational aspects and largely ignores power relations which are assumed to correspond closely to the formal organization structure. A third stream of research has emerged from the strategic management literature (Ansoff, 1979; Anthony, 1965; Lewin, 1981; Steiner and Miner, 1977). Here the emphasis has been on budgeting and control though the scope has broadened to embrace e.g. considerations of power. A fourth related contributor, drawn on mainly by the policy and strategy streams and largely ignored in the public policy literature, is the organizational behaviour literature with its work on the exercise of power in organizations (for example, Cyert and March, 1963; Mumford and Pettigrew, 1975). ::: ::: ::: ::: In the study to be described here, which predates privatization, insights have been drawn from, and relationships established between, each of these streams of work, none of which has yet produced a comprehensive theory of implementation; regretably it remains beyond the scope of this study to do so. Hypotheses have emerged from the study which are offered as a contribution to theory buiding in implementation. It is hoped that they, in combination with findings from other research, will bring nearer the goal of a comprehensive theory of implementation as a guide to planning and action applicable to both the public and private sectors. ::: ::: ::: ::: While there have been some empirical studies of strategy formulation, little field research has been undertaken on implementation (Bardach, 1977; Hofer, 1976; Schultz and Slevin, 1975).
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paper_title: Identifying and appraising how managers install strategy

paper_content:

Cases were profiled to identify tactics used by strategic managers to implement strategy and to determine which tactic was the most effective in promoting adoption. Analysis revealed that four archetype tactics were used almost exclusively. An ‘interventionist’ approach had the best results but was used in only one case in five. ‘Persuasion’ and ‘participation’ were next most effective tactics, and ‘edicts’ the least effective. The implications of these findings for strategic management practice and the needs for further research are discussed.
---
paper_title: SBU Strategies, Corporate-SBU Relations, and SBU Effectiveness in Strategy Implementation

paper_content:

In a departure from earlier studies focusing only on the effects of corporate strategies, this study examined the effects of strategic business units' (SBUs') strategies on the utility of various states of corporate-SBU relations. For SBUs trying to build market share or to pursue differentiation as a competitive strategy, openness in corporate-SBU relations and subjectivity in performance assessment were found to be positively associated with effectiveness; for SBUs trying lo maximize short-term earnings or to pursue low cost as a competitive strategy, the corresponding associations were found to be negative. In contrast, corporate-SBU decentralization emerged as positively associated with SBUs' effectiveness irrespective of their strategic contexts; although SBUs' competitive strategies moderated the magnitude of that association, their strategic missions did not.
---
paper_title: Successfully Implementing Strategic Decisions

paper_content:

Although strategy implementation is viewed as an integral part of the strategic management process, little has been written or researched on it. The overwhelming majority of the literature so far has been on the long-range planning process itself or the actual content of the strategy being formulated. We have so far been giving lip service to the other side of the coin, namely strategy implementation. Consequently, it is not surprising that after a comprehensive strategy or single strategic decision has been formulated, significant difficulties are often encountered during the subsequent implementation process.
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paper_title: The Eclectic Roots of Strategy Implementation Research

paper_content:

Abstract The researcher interested in strategy implementation faces a formidable challenge. Although this area has drawn many calls for research attention, there is not a deep and cohesive body of prior literature on which to draw in developing new efforts. This study proposes that through taking a broadened perspective of the nature of implementation, a range of valuable insights for the implementation researcher is available. First, various conceptualizations and definitions of implementation that have been proposed are considered. Next, a broad range of literature fields that have direct and indirect implications for the study of strategy implementation are reviewed. This review is organized around a framework that distinguishes between structural and interpersonal process views of implementation. Insights for the implementation researcher are highlighted. Finally, future directions for implementation research are proposed.
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paper_title: Strategy implementation versus middle management self-interest

paper_content:

This article suggests that middle managers with low or negative commitment to the strategies formulated by senior management create significant obstacles to effective implementation.
---
paper_title: The strategy process, middle management involvement, and organizational performance

paper_content:

This paper reports the results of a study investigating the strategic involvement of middlelevel 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.
---
paper_title: Performance in adolescent, technology-based firms: Product strategy, implementation, and synergy

paper_content:

Abstract Based on a sample of “adolescent” firms in technology-based industries, this study analyzes the effects on performance of two aspects of product strategy-product leadership and product/market focus, two aspects of strategic implementation-stakeholder input and employee empowerment, and the interaction of product strategy and strategic implementation variables. Five aspects of performance are examined, including growth rate, R&D, profit, financial stability, and future prospects.
---
paper_title: Implementing marketing strategies: Developing and testing a managerial theory.

paper_content:

Implementation pervades strategic performance. It is a critical link between the formulation of marketing strategies and the achievement of superior organizational performance. Research conducted i...
---
paper_title: Middle Management’s Strategic Influence and Organizational Performance

paper_content:

This study investigated relationships between middle managers’ formal position, their strategic influence and organizational performance. Among the 259 middle managers represented in the study, managers with formal positions in boundary–spanning sub–units reported higher levels of strategic influence activity than others. At the organizational level of analysis, the study found that firm performance was associated with more uniform levels of downward strategic influence, and more varied levels of upward influence among middle management cohorts. The findings suggest that middle managers’ strategic influence arises from their ability to mediate between internal and external selection environments. In addition, positive effects on organizational performance appear to depend on: (1) whether the overall pattern of upward influence is conducive to shifts in the network centrality of individual managers; and (2) whether the pattern of downward influence is consistent with an appropriate balance between the organization’s need for control and flexibility.
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paper_title: The strategic implementation process: evoking strategic consensus through communication

paper_content:

Abstract Effective strategy implementation is predicated on the assumption that functional areas within the firm have a basic understanding of the strategy. Termed strategic consensus, this concept refers to the extent to which intraorganizational perceptions converge on shared understandings of strategic priorities. The present study provides an initial exploration of consensus, supporting the viability of frequent vertical communication as a means by which strategic consensus may be enhanced. The performance implications of vertical communication and consensus reaffirm the important roles that frequent communication and shared understandings play in the implementation process. Specifically, when vertical communication is frequent, strategic consensus is enhanced and organizational performance improves, as evidenced by higher levels of net operating income, gross revenues, and growth in net revenues. And, in firms where the marketing executive's interpretation of strategy aligns with the chief executive officer's (CEO) perspective (i.e., strategic consensus), organizations are rewarded with higher levels of both marketing and organizational performance.
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paper_title: Global Strategy Implementation at the Business Unit Level: Operational Capabilities and Administrative Mechanisms

paper_content:

The study examines the impact of internationally strategy on organizational design and the influence of the organizational design on effectiveness at the business unit level. The empirical findings are based on survey responses from eighty-two business units competing in global industries. The findings are supportive of the contingency notion which suggests that business unit effectiveness is a function of the fit between the international strategy and the organizational design.
---
paper_title: Business Unit Strategy, Managerial Characteristics, and Business Unit Effectiveness at Strategy Implementation

paper_content:

Data from 58 strategic business units (SBUs) reveal that greater marketing/sales experience, greater willingness to take risk, and greater tolerance for ambiguity on the part of the SBU general manager contribute to effectiveness in the case of “build” SBUs but hamper it in the case of “harvest” SBUs.
---
paper_title: Strategy Implementation: The Impact of Demographic Characteristics on the Level of Support Received by Middle Managers

paper_content:

■ Middle managers of contemporary organizations play an important role in ensuring successful strategy implementation, which requires top managers to provide adequate support to them. One of the key factors determining the level of support is the demographic characteristics of middle managers. ■ This article examines the impact of a middle manager's demographic characteristics on the level of support received during strategy implementation. Factors needed for successful strategy implementation are used to measure the level of support received by middle managers in the marketing department of selected UK private companies.
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paper_title: SBU Strategies, Corporate-SBU Relations, and SBU Effectiveness in Strategy Implementation

paper_content:

In a departure from earlier studies focusing only on the effects of corporate strategies, this study examined the effects of strategic business units' (SBUs') strategies on the utility of various states of corporate-SBU relations. For SBUs trying to build market share or to pursue differentiation as a competitive strategy, openness in corporate-SBU relations and subjectivity in performance assessment were found to be positively associated with effectiveness; for SBUs trying lo maximize short-term earnings or to pursue low cost as a competitive strategy, the corresponding associations were found to be negative. In contrast, corporate-SBU decentralization emerged as positively associated with SBUs' effectiveness irrespective of their strategic contexts; although SBUs' competitive strategies moderated the magnitude of that association, their strategic missions did not.
---
paper_title: Belaboring the Not-So-Obvious: Consensus, Commitment, and Strategy Implementation Speed and Success

paper_content:

One of the accepted beliefs among strategic management researchers is that strategic decision consensus among decision-makers facilitates decision implementation speed and implementation success. Despite this belief, there has been little empirical research directly examining these relationships. Using hierarchical regression, this study examines the effects of strategic decision consensus and commitment on decision implementation speed and success. Results from a sample of 68 intact strategic decision-making teams in Southeastern United States hospitals support the normatively accepted ideal that decision consensus helps build decision commitment, which in turn positively affects implementation success. Contrary to our expectations, however, decision commitment serves to slow implementation speed. The implications of these results for consensus and implementation research are discussed.
---
paper_title: The strategy process, middle management involvement, and organizational performance

paper_content:

This paper reports the results of a study investigating the strategic involvement of middlelevel 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.
---
paper_title: Exploring barriers to the successful implementation of a formulated strategy

paper_content:

This paper reports a case study conducted to identify barriers to the successful implementation of activities as part of a planned strategy in a Norwegian ferry-cruise company. Data were gathered among workers on one of the company's vessels using a structured sequence of questions with open-ended answers. Our findings indicate that various types of communication problem which may be influenced to some extent by the organizational structure, constitute the key barriers to the implementation of planned strategic activities.
---
paper_title: Strategy Implementation Tactics as Response to Organizational, Strategic, and Environmental Imperatives **

paper_content:

Based on previous literature in the fields of strategy implementation and leadership research tactics for strategy implementation are identified. Three categories proved empirically valid in this study: autocratic tactics, participative tactics and tactics which rely on the given culture of the organization. The paper is based on the assumption that implementation in general is dependent on environmental, strategic and organizational variables. In this sense implementation tactics can be interpreted as genuine organizational behaviour. Based on a discussion of associations of implementation tactics with these variables it is hypothesized that the perception of environmental threats will lead to more autocratic tactics, whereas the existence of a formulated strategy will rather lead to more participative tactics. No such relationships are predicted for cultural tactics. A questionnaire-based measure of implementation tactics is tested in a sample of 136 Upper-Austrian firms by referring to implementation projects or strategy related issues. For a sub-sample (n=60) a moderated regression analysis on implementation tactics with measures of organizational structure, the environment, the strategy, and the interaction between environment and strategy as independent variables was performed. It shows that the use of autocratic tactics is significantly explained by environmental variables whereas participative tactics are significantly explained by the existence of a formulated strategy within the organization. For Culture as an implementation tactic only the interaction between environmental and strategic variables was a significant predictor. Implications for future theory building and empirical research into organizational behaviour in the context of strategy formulation and strategy implementation are discussed. Key words: Strategy Implementation; Implementation Tactics, Organizational Centralization, Uncertainty, Equivocality Many studies in the long tradition of organizational behaviour research could be qualified as general behavioural research, as long as they do not refer to idiosyncratic conditions within the organization. Rather then presenting new methodologies of research the aim of this paper is to seek new directions by explicitly linking behavioural inquiry to related fields in organizational research, in particular to organizational theory and to strategic management. This link is represented here through tactics of strategy implementation as behavioural patterns, which are dependent on environmental, organizational, and strategic conditions. There is still little research on strategy implementation, compared to the bulk of literature on the formulation and decision parts of the strategic process. Strategy implementation involves multiple levels of analysis which hinders the development of closed frameworks and of coherent streams of research. Consequently, researchers have taken a large diversity of perspectives on implementation (Noble, 1999). It has mainly been researched in regard to the fit between strategy and structure (e.g. Galbraith/Kazanjian 1986; Hrebaniak/Joyce 1984), building on the seminal work of Chandler (1962). This has been supplemented through studies of environmental and organizational contingencies for strategies (Damanpour 1996). A different research stream addresses implementation as a variant of leadership processes on a conceptual level (Bourgeois/Brodwin 1984) or empirically (e.g. Nutt 1986). The latter type of studies lacks explicit references to strategy content, with the exception of an empirical study using multiple case studies by Waldersee and Sheather (1996). Some studies link strategy type (Hambrick/Mason 1984; Miller/Toulouse 1986; Miller/Kets de Vries/ Toulouse 1982; Szilagy/Schweiger 1984) or implementation (Gupta/Govindarajan 1984; Govindarajan 1989; Nutt 1995) to managerial characteristics. However, there is a growing literature on the resource-based view (Wernerfelt 1989; Barney 1991) or competence-based view (German/Thomas 1997) of the firm, emphasizing the importance of organizational processes and capabilities for sustained competitive advantage. …
---
paper_title: Implementing marketing strategies: Developing and testing a managerial theory.

paper_content:

Implementation pervades strategic performance. It is a critical link between the formulation of marketing strategies and the achievement of superior organizational performance. Research conducted i...
---
paper_title: A STUDY OF ORGANIZATIONAL 'FRAMEWORK' AND 'PROCESS' MODALITIES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF BUSINESS-LEVEL STRATEGIC DECISIONS*

paper_content:

Abstract : Based on structuration theory, organization framework and process are proposed as two modalities for implementing intended business-level strategies. A model is developed in which the components of these two modalities and related to the implementation of low cost and differentiation strategies. The implementation of fifty-seven strategies in integrated circuits, petroleum, and health care firms are used to test the research hypotheses. The findings suggest that strategy implementation in these firms utilized both framework and process structural elements, but that a different implementation gestalt characterized each strategy. Implications for strategy implementation and for structuration theory are discussed.
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paper_title: Managing strategic consensus: the foundation of effective implementation.

paper_content:

Executive Overview A frequent complaint of senior executives is that middle and operating managers fail to take the actions necessary to implement strategy. As one top manager told us. “It's been rather easy for us to decide where we wanted to go. The hard part is to get the organization to act on the new priorities.” Implementation problems of this type are often the result of poor middle management understanding and commitment to strategy. In our research we've found that relatively few middle managers articulate the same goals as their superiors. More troublesome, other researchers have found that middle managers who disagree with strategic initiatives frequently work against their implementation. This article examines an approach to implementation that focuses on the level of strategic understanding and commitment shared by managers within the organization. A framework identifying four categories of strategic consensus is introduced and used as the basis for analyzing differences in how managers perce...
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paper_title: The Eight ‘S’s of successful strategy execution

paper_content:

Abstract As the business environment becomes more complex and more changeful, the need to reformulate strategy and/or to adjust elements of the existing strategy becomes more frequent. As a result senior executives find themselves confronted with the need to integrate a number of changes in the execution of the new or revised strategy. This dissemination and integration of execution actions is especially difficult across cross-functional activities. The ‘8 “S”s of Strategy Execution’ is a heuristic that enables senior management to more readily enact, monitor, and assess the cross functional execution of strategies, new or revised. The 8 ‘S’s model is a revision of the original McKinsey 7 ‘S’s model. The most significant change comes in the deletion of skills from the McKinsey model and the addition of reSources in its place. Furthermore, Strategic Performance has been added to the model to help focus the strategy execution effort.
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paper_title: Marketing's contribution to the implementation of business strategy: an empirical analysis

paper_content:

This paper describes a study that assesses the performance implications of matching marketing strategy to business strategy. In order to conduct this study we first reviewed the literature on marketing strategy to identify its key dimensions. We then conducted a survey of 1000 senior marketing executives about the strategic marketing practices adopted in their respective firms or business units, and developed scales to describe 11 strategic marketing activities. We next performed a K-means cluster analysis using these scales to develop a taxonomy of marketing strategy types consisting of: Aggressive Marketers, Mass Marketers, Marketing Minimizers, and Value Marketers. We then observed that superior performance at the firm or SBU level was achieved when specific marketing strategy types were matched with appropriate Miles and Snow (1978) business strategy types. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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paper_title: Tactics of Implementation

paper_content:

This study identified implementation tactics used by managers in making planned changes by profiling 91 case studies. Analysis revealed four types of tactics, variations within these tactics, and h...
---
paper_title: Explanations from the marketing/human resources dyad for marketing strategy implementation effectiveness in service firms

paper_content:

Abstract The marketing strategy literature is often criticized for the dearth of conceptual, theoretical, and empirical studies focusing on antecedents to effective marketing strategy implementation. Despite some related research on the constituency-based theory of the firm, even less is understood concerning the interplay between functional areas on marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. We examine the marketing/human resources (HR) dyad and contribute to this limited platform of knowledge by testing a set of eight hypotheses that forms the basis of the model in which six process-based organization dimensions are considered to be related to the psychosocial outcomes of relationship effectiveness and interfunctional conflict. These, in turn, are hypothesized to impact upon the behavioral outcome of marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. The data that are used to test these relationships are generated from 230 medium and large European service-based firms. While we find that psychosocial outcomes do have important effects on marketing strategy implementation effectiveness, a paradox is observed in the effects of process-based dimensions upon psychosocial outcomes. These findings are interpreted and discussed in the context of existing literature and a number of implications are drawn.
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paper_title: Key success factors for strategy implementation in Latin America

paper_content:

Increasing competition among Latin American firms fosters more proactive processes aimed at reviewing business strategy. The research objective is to measure the impact of key variables on successful implementation of business strategy. Relying on the knowledge and experience of Latin American entrepreneurs and managers, the questions addressed include: How important is the role of the CEO and management actors? Do firms prioritize actions prior to implementing strategy? Are control and follow-up tools valued? How is a successful strategy implementation ensured? Research findings are expected to provide useful knowledge for management decision processes relating to successful implementation of business strategy.
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paper_title: Towards a strategy implementation framework

paper_content:

Aims to develop an implementation framework. Further to a critical review of previous research, ten implementation variables were identified and a conceptual framework constructed. The implementation process of a strategic decision was investigated in two international hotel groups via in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews, observations and documentation analysis. The initial conceptual framework was found to be useful as it grouped key variables together and illustrated their roles when implementing strategic decisions. Three new variables, however, emerged from the findings; namely, multiple project implementation, organisational learning and working with external companies. A revised framework was then proposed and further explanations provided. Concludes by emphasising the importance of contextual variables in implementation and dispels the strategic management notion of “fit”.
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paper_title: Strategy Implementation: The Impact of Demographic Characteristics on the Level of Support Received by Middle Managers

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■ Middle managers of contemporary organizations play an important role in ensuring successful strategy implementation, which requires top managers to provide adequate support to them. One of the key factors determining the level of support is the demographic characteristics of middle managers. ■ This article examines the impact of a middle manager's demographic characteristics on the level of support received during strategy implementation. Factors needed for successful strategy implementation are used to measure the level of support received by middle managers in the marketing department of selected UK private companies.
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paper_title: Marketing's Role in the Implementation of Business Strategies: A Critical Review and Conceptual Framework:

paper_content:

The authors review and integrate various theoretical perspectives, normative statements, and pieces of empirical evidence about the organizational structures and processes best suited for implement...
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paper_title: Identifying and appraising how managers install strategy

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Cases were profiled to identify tactics used by strategic managers to implement strategy and to determine which tactic was the most effective in promoting adoption. Analysis revealed that four archetype tactics were used almost exclusively. An ‘interventionist’ approach had the best results but was used in only one case in five. ‘Persuasion’ and ‘participation’ were next most effective tactics, and ‘edicts’ the least effective. The implications of these findings for strategic management practice and the needs for further research are discussed.
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paper_title: SBU Strategies, Corporate-SBU Relations, and SBU Effectiveness in Strategy Implementation

paper_content:

In a departure from earlier studies focusing only on the effects of corporate strategies, this study examined the effects of strategic business units' (SBUs') strategies on the utility of various states of corporate-SBU relations. For SBUs trying to build market share or to pursue differentiation as a competitive strategy, openness in corporate-SBU relations and subjectivity in performance assessment were found to be positively associated with effectiveness; for SBUs trying lo maximize short-term earnings or to pursue low cost as a competitive strategy, the corresponding associations were found to be negative. In contrast, corporate-SBU decentralization emerged as positively associated with SBUs' effectiveness irrespective of their strategic contexts; although SBUs' competitive strategies moderated the magnitude of that association, their strategic missions did not.
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paper_title: Successfully Implementing Strategic Decisions

paper_content:

Although strategy implementation is viewed as an integral part of the strategic management process, little has been written or researched on it. The overwhelming majority of the literature so far has been on the long-range planning process itself or the actual content of the strategy being formulated. We have so far been giving lip service to the other side of the coin, namely strategy implementation. Consequently, it is not surprising that after a comprehensive strategy or single strategic decision has been formulated, significant difficulties are often encountered during the subsequent implementation process.
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paper_title: The Eclectic Roots of Strategy Implementation Research

paper_content:

Abstract The researcher interested in strategy implementation faces a formidable challenge. Although this area has drawn many calls for research attention, there is not a deep and cohesive body of prior literature on which to draw in developing new efforts. This study proposes that through taking a broadened perspective of the nature of implementation, a range of valuable insights for the implementation researcher is available. First, various conceptualizations and definitions of implementation that have been proposed are considered. Next, a broad range of literature fields that have direct and indirect implications for the study of strategy implementation are reviewed. This review is organized around a framework that distinguishes between structural and interpersonal process views of implementation. Insights for the implementation researcher are highlighted. Finally, future directions for implementation research are proposed.
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paper_title: The impact of marketing/HR interactions on marketing strategy implementation

paper_content:

It is increasingly being recognised that cross‐unit working relationships have a key role to play in the successful implementation of marketing decisions. Although there is a substantial body of literature on marketing's interactions with other functions, particularly technical units such as R&D, within the context of the new product development (NPD) process, linkages between marketing and human resources (HR) have not been empirically investigated although they are widely advocated in both the marketing and HR management literatures. The conceptual model presented and tested in this paper focuses on the antecedents of effective marketing/HR interactions and posits successful marketing strategy implementation as an outcome of these. Results from a study of UK service organisations suggest that implementation effectiveness is affected negatively by conflict and positively by communication and specifically, interpersonal, not written. In turn, these interdepartmental dynamics are affected by senior managem...
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paper_title: Belaboring the Not-So-Obvious: Consensus, Commitment, and Strategy Implementation Speed and Success

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One of the accepted beliefs among strategic management researchers is that strategic decision consensus among decision-makers facilitates decision implementation speed and implementation success. Despite this belief, there has been little empirical research directly examining these relationships. Using hierarchical regression, this study examines the effects of strategic decision consensus and commitment on decision implementation speed and success. Results from a sample of 68 intact strategic decision-making teams in Southeastern United States hospitals support the normatively accepted ideal that decision consensus helps build decision commitment, which in turn positively affects implementation success. Contrary to our expectations, however, decision commitment serves to slow implementation speed. The implications of these results for consensus and implementation research are discussed.
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Title: Making Strategy Work: A Literature Review on the Factors Influencing Strategy Implementation

Section 1: Introduction
Description 1: Write about the challenges in strategy implementation and the importance of studying the factors that influence successful implementation. Summarize the paper's structure.

Section 2: Definitions of Strategy Implementation
Description 2: Discuss various definitions and terminologies related to strategy implementation, including different perspectives (process, behavior, hybrid).

Section 3: Methodology
Description 3: Explain the methodology used to conduct the literature review, including selection criteria for articles and the timeframe considered.

Section 4: Literature Review
Description 4: Review the identified studies, focusing on their research contexts, results, theoretical bases, and research methodologies. Discuss nine major factors that affect strategy implementation and review existing models and frameworks.

Section 5: Discussion
Description 5: Discuss the contributions and shortcomings of existing research. Include analysis of the relationships among different factors and suggest directions for future research.

Section 6: Limitations and Future Research Avenues
Description 6: Discuss the limitations of the paper's approach and summarize open research questions. Suggest potential avenues for future research in the domain of strategy implementation.