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AbstractProduct and process innovation are well established and now the attention is turning to value co‐creation.

Market share is often used to describe the position and success of a firm in an industrial sector. While the impact of market share is not always reflected in a firm's profitability or performance, many firms see it as an important organisational goal. Accordingly, it could be argued that market share influences the organisational thinking and strategic planning of small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises. However, it is unclear how and to what extent? The analysis indicates that firms with an increased market share differ significantly from firms with a decreased or static market share on the emphasis given to a number of environmental factors. The analysis shows that firms with increased market share are likely to have higher performance and in particular achieve enhanced financial performance, greater customer retention and customer satisfaction. This applies to all firm sizes. To ensure competitive advantage, firms need to consider market share in conjunction with overall profits.

AbstractThe emergence of global value chains (GVCs) appears due to the rise of international trade deregulation and market liberalization over the past decades. The rise of information and communication technologies, which supports knowledge‐intensive activities, has also radically transformed value capture across GVCs and raises the bar for value‐creating opportunities as a new generation of technologies emerges. Of particular relevance to GVCs is the rise of digital technologies, such as big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence. These technologies promise to herald a new era of connectedness, collaboration, and innovation, affording significant growth opportunities for GVCs. Digital platforms will play a key role for GVCs in orchestrating such value‐creating opportunities. There remains a lack of empirical understanding of how digital platforms can enable GVC strategy. The study seeks to address this question by reviewing the digital platform literature to support key GVC strategy learnings. Specifically, 61 "digital platform"–titled articles across 38 Chartered Association of Business Schools (ABS)‐ranked journals were reviewed. The study adopts Mainardi and Kleiner's (Strategy + Business, 2010, 61, pp. 1–14) "strategy landscape" framework to organize emerging findings. Eight key themes emerged from the literature to reveal critical issues for digital platforms. Implications for strategy are then discussed, revealing four key learnings for GVCs, namely, (i) boundary management, (ii) definition of the unit of analysis, (iii) alignment of capabilities, and (iv) governance and leadership.

Strategic foresight promotes the enactment of organizationally useful actions and repertoires which enhance the entrepreneurial capabilities of firms embedded in high‐velocity environments.

AbstractWith research funds being squeezed, it is imperative that research is seen to make a difference and can demonstrate societal value.

Abstract

The findings from the research presented in this paper indicate that strategic planning is now an established management tool with over half of all small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) engaging in formal strategic planning.


However, some SMEs fail to consider or include some vital components in their strategic plans, leading to the conclusion that many formal strategic plans are little more than a paper exercise.


From an operational perspective, formal strategic planning firms place a higher emphasis on the attributes of strategic planning. However, there are no significant differences on the barriers to strategy implementation in formal or non‐formal planning firms.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The European Commission (EC) is updating the definition of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) following widespread consultation. The EC is focusing on a redefinition of the financial ceiling criterion rather than the ceilings in relation to the number of persons employed in categorising SMEs as micro, small or medium. The retention of a ceiling of 250 employees as the overall employment criterion for SMEs has a major drawback in that it assumes that all firms from micro to medium have broadly similar organisational and managerial processes. Some researchers contend that organisational size based on employee numbers is an important underpinning factor in the way these processes are emphasised. The analysis presented indicates that while size is important, it does not have a significant impact on the managerial and organisational processes examined. These findings lend some support for the retention of the existing size criterion in the definition of SMEs.

The literature contends that the lack of strategic business planning is a major drawback in the implementation of business process initiatives such as total quality management. In addition, it is evident that strategic planning firms achieve better performance than other firms. However, strategic planning often fails due to problems or barriers encountered at the implementation stage. It is unclear from the limited research carried out to date what actions, if any, firms can take to minimise or eliminate these barriers. This paper examines the concept of strategic planning and identifies the barriers to its implementation. It considers the suitability of formal strategic planning as the key to eliminating or reducing implementation barriers by comparing the extent to which the barriers are experienced in formal and non‐formal planning firms. The paper also examines the extent to which the barriers are experienced by high and low performing firms.

AbstractThe relationship between innovation, product design, and industry co‐evolution remains under‐theorized. This article discusses gaps in knowledge and introduces the contributing papers in this special issue.

Politics, power, and influence impact upon strategy, where the intention to produce a foreign policy‐based strategic defence review was forgone during last‐minute adjustments and compromises over money.

AbstractThis study of plastics processing companies in the United Kingdom finds little evidence to support a link between the competitive environment and firm performance whereas differences in performance are more likely attributable to firm‐specific factors.

AbstractRepositioning enables firms to shift their business efforts to profitable areas, as their size is not an all‐encompassing determinant of performance and the aggressive pursuit of market share can ultimately be destructive to their value.

Abstract

The literature is highly critical of the business–academia relationship and there is a lack of congruence between strategic management research conducted by academics and that used by practitioners. There is also a lack of models of collaborative research and its dissemination.


This research aims to identify means by which the degree of academia versus business congruence can be enhanced in managing strategic change effectively.


A critical realist approach was taken using semi‐structured interviews with practitioners, academics, and consultants in order to get a balance of views from different perspectives.


The interviewees presented an opaque picture with a lack of clarity as to how organizations might or should access strategy thinking from within academia. This also extends to some uncertainty about what industry 'needs' and, from the point of view of the academic, what should be provided to client organizations.


The results indicate that the transfer of new strategy approaches can only be achieved once practitioners acknowledge the credibility of academia in contributing to practitioner‐related issues.


Analysis of the qualitative data collected for this project suggests that achieving practitioner credibility requires the context and content of collaborations to be more proactively managed through more effective processes.


Implications for academic institutions as well as individual strategic management academics are discussed.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.