A review of research from organizational behavior supported the guidelines by corporate planners: that is, use an explicit approach for setting objectives, generating strategies, evaluating strategies, monitoring results, and obtaining commitment. To determine whether these findings could be applied to strategic decision making in organizations, a review was made of all published field research on the evaluation of formal planning. Formal planning was superior in 10 of the 15 comparisons drawn from 12 studies, while informal planning was superior in only two comparisons. Although this research did not provide sufficient information on the use of various aspects of the planning process, mild support was provided for having participation by stakeholders. Formal planning tended to be more useful where large changes were involved, but, beyond that, little information was available to suggest when formal planning is most valuable. Future research should assess the formal planning process, t...

This paper attempts to establish the applicability of the Miles and Snow typology of strategic orientation to small, entrepreneurial organisations. It posits that congruence between strategic orientation and decision making comprehensiveness of the strategic planning process is a superior determinant of firm performance to planning alone. An empirical study in the Regional Airline industry was conducted to investigate this proposition. Results support the importance of the congruence construct in determining performance in small, entrepreneurial ventures. Keywords:

An important fundamental determinant of a firm’s profitability and growth is what Porter describes as ‘industry attractiveness or structure’. A review of the empirical studies on inter-industry performance differentials reveals that most of the work in this area has been undertaken in industrially advanced and big countries, notably in the US. This paper empirically examines this issue on which little work has been done in New Zealand. Apart from industry effects, impact of various other firm specific variables on the financial performance has been studied. The results are based on the analysis of 74 listed companies spread over four broad industry groups. Company performance, the dependent variable in the analysis, is represented by two composite measures – derived by factor analysis reflecting the growth and profitability dimensions of performance. Our results indicate that both industry effects and firm characteristics play significant roles in influencing profitability but not on growth. The paper discusses the implications of these results for strategic managers.