Purpose – To date there is a dearth of research on strategic decision‐making in manufacturing small and medium sized firms. This research paper focuses on the key drivers of decision‐making and organisational performance: ownership, decision‐making (type and level) and employee...

Purpose – This study aims to examine the moderating effects of external environment and organisational structure in the relationship between business‐level strategy and organisational performance. Design/methodology/approach – The focus of the study is on manufacturing firms in the UK...

Much current discussion of strategic content focuses upon the elaboration and refinement of existing strategies, rather than upon the demands of strategic reorientation. This lack of attention is particularly in relation to organisations undergoing market liberalisation. Consequently, our...

Little attention has been paid to the strategy‐making processes of small and medium‐sized firms (SMEs), or to the effectiveness of strategic planning in the SME sector. Planning often fails because of implementation problems often associated with SMEs’ lack of capability to determine and...

This paper re‐visits the perennial question “Why do some firms perform better than others?” by focusing on the resource‐based view of strategy and in particular the role of generic organisational capabilities in the achievement of overall performance and competitive advantage. Presents...

Purpose – The process of public sector reform in the United Kingdom continues to provoke debate. Even among advocates of the reform process there is a concern that improvements in public service provision have not been as marked as originally intended, and that the process has produced a...

Many corporations across the world are experiencing growing pressure to incorporate environmental issues into their strategic decision‐making process. This pressure characterizes the increased global significance of the environment. Examines the extent to which the issue is recognized by UK...

Despite growing evidence that large UK organisations are increasingly incorporating the environment into corporate strategy, there continues to be considerable scepticism as to whether this is leading to any meaningful action to reduce industry’s environmental impact. One possible explanation...

As one small part of a research project funded by the Science Research Council we have been working recently inside several British factories in an attempt to isolate the mechanisms of corporate productivity. Our ultimate objective is to derive robust measures of productivity in terms of batch...