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The contingency approach and its relevance to theory building and research in marketing is described. The approach is delineated and its theoretical foundations traced. Several established contingency theories within the management discipline are outlined and the research they have stimulated on related topics in marketing are highlighted. An assessment of the current state of the contingency approach in marketing literature is then provided.

The main contribution of this paper is to integrate into one model management and organizational fields that are normally analyzed separately: contingency factors, organizational design variables, strategic approaches and quality management approaches. The essential core of the model is constituted by three basic variables of organizational design: level of centralization, level of formalization‐standardization, and level of shared vision and common values. Through analysis using this conceptual tool, we can: assess the position of tasks and organizational units in relation to these organizational variables; evaluate the congruence between organizational variables and contingency factors; identify relationships between strategic management approaches and quality approaches; and establish a fit between strategic management approaches, organizational variables, contingency factors and quality approaches.

In the new millennium, organisations are going through rapid changes and the role of strategic management is challenged. When the organisation is threatened by environmental changes such as crises or competition as a result of information technology development or increased customer demands, the need for communication increases. During high change situations, when the publics of the organisation become involved in the change issues, they actively seek information about the issues. If the organisation could utilise communication management more effectively and in a twoway, participative way, they would build more positive relationships with the publics involved and reorganise themselves out of disorder. Strategic planning will become even more important, but will have to change to a contingency approach and emphasise flexibility and relationship building. This paper looks at organisational processes during change and how they can be managed by communication. Implications are drawn from chaos, postmodern and complexity theory as well as the contingency view of communication. The authors create a framework for scanning and analysing processes and settings, and suggest an alternative strategic, symmetrical and ethical communication approach to respond to problems. They present a new paradigm that emerges as a response to polarisation and treats communication as more receiver‐centred, stakeholder‐based, relationship‐building‐oriented and of strategic importance. This paper lays a foundation for an alternative perspective to the central problems of the communication discipline against the background of new emerging multidisciplinary approaches.

The research investigates the effectiveness of the performance measurement alignment approach which claims that measurement diversity (multiple performance measures) should be aligned with organisational contingencies to enhance organisational performance.

The theoretical framework is contingency theory. The study is an empirical investigation of the indirect relationship between three contextual factors (business strategy, information technology and organisation size) and organisational performance via multiple performance measures. The results are derived from cross-sectional questionnaire survey data from 132 Libyan companies (response rate of 61%). For data analysis, the research uses mediation regression analysis via Preacher and Hayes' (2004) macro.

There is a significant indirect effect of business strategy and information technology, but not organisation size, on organisational performance. The measurement diversity approach plays a core mediating role in the relationship between the contingencies and organisational performance.

The study helps to provide a better understanding of the usefulness of the fit/match between contingencies and Multiple Performance Measures in improving organisational performance.

The empirical evidence supports the central proposition of contingency theory that there is no universally appropriate performance measurement system which applies equally to all organisations in all circumstances. It also provides evidence relating to non–manufacturing and an emerging market context. This research significantly extends the relevant literature by highlighting the relationship between information technology, multiple performance measures and organisational performance. This study is the first to use Preacher and Hayes' (2004) macro to analyse mediation design in the field of contingency-based performance measurement.

Health-care delivery organizations (hospitals) constitute a complex adaptive system; hence, a contingency perspective is imperative to guide the design of customized approaches to quality management in different health-care settings. Accordingly, this paper aims to propose a contingency framework to advance the understanding of the relationship between situational factors and effectiveness of quality approaches in health-care organizations (HCOs), such as hospitals in India.

Related literature was reviewed to identify existing research and theories related to quality and quality approaches, situational factors of the HCOs (hospitals) and some existing logical evidence on public and private hospitals in India. Then a contingencies framework for quality and quality approaches was conceptualized.

This paper proposes contingent determinants arise out of conceptualization of the HCOs (hospitals) from different system perspective such as rational system, natural system, open system and integrative system; uncertainty because of physicians’ behaviour, nurses’ approach and a dual line of authority; and the task environment such as patients, competition and economic pressure. These determinants represent situational constructs to the quality enhancement of any attempt at quality approaches. While these determinants have an influence on the quality and quality approaches of the HCOs (hospital), it is imperative to build any quality improvement strategy to work effectively, i.e., quality approach is dependent on determinants of the contingencies of the hospital’s environment, be it external or internal. Propositions for future research are also incorporated.

This paper proposes a conceptual model as well as research propositions that need to be validated and confirmed empirically. It advances the research and theory related to quality and quality approaches in a health-care setting. It can enable policymakers, hospital managers to analyze and gauge the appropriateness of quality approaches in a given context before implementing them and could help to improve the introverted quality approaches and quality dimensions currently followed in HCOs (hospitals).

Contingency framework is a new approach for research on the effectiveness of quality approaches in hospitals. The fundamental idea behind this framework is that effectiveness of quality approaches can be understood best by examining its contingent determinants. Thus, it has the capacity to contribute to the efforts of government and policymakers to make the quality of care affordable to all in India. Essentially, we examine the contexts and variables that determine the effectiveness of quality approaches.

Though academic research into the marketing/ entrepreneurship interface is of only relatively recent origin, it would seem that the basic principles of marketing appear to be equally valuable to both large and small firms. This article provides a critical review of the research into the role and process of marketing in small firms and attempts to classify the existing studies. In so doing, it identifies four approaches, namely the stages/growth model; the management styles model; the marketing as a management function model and the contingency model. From this, it concludes that in order to advance the theory of small business marketing a theoretical framework integrating the contingency approach and the process model appears to hold the greatest potential.

The purpose of this paper is to identify contingencies that are inherently linked to sustainability and that influence its implementation in companies. Further, to identify which coordination mechanisms (organic or mechanistic) are most effective for the implementation on the corporate and on the functional level.

Inductive case-study based upon a cross-industry sample of five cases that applies a contingency approach. The case companies differ with respect to the degree of sustainability implementation, the underlying internal coordination and structural factors like ownership, size, and industry.

The data revealed six contingency factors inherent to the implementation of sustainability that influence the effectiveness of organic or mechanistic coordination mechanisms according to the specific implementation context. Further, the implementation of corporate sustainability requires more internal coordination than implementing sustainability on the functional level.

The identified contingencies relevant for the internal coordination to implement sustainability and insights into the relevance of such coordination provide a sound basis for future research. Further, various research avenues are identified to advance the discipline's understanding of this so far under-researched field.

This paper shows that a one-size-fits-all approach to sustainability implementation is not effective. Rather, companies need to consider specific contingencies and adapt their internal coordination efforts accordingly.

This paper is the first to address internal coordination for implementing sustainability on the corporate and functional level. By providing insights on the context-specific effectiveness of different types of internal coordination for the implementation of corporate sustainability, sustainable sourcing, and sustainable marketing it provides a contribution to both academia and industry practice.

Contingency models have enabled researchers to develop system‐based decision‐making approaches to organizational studies. Two contingency decision‐making models ‐ rational and political choice ‐ have been applied to identify those organizational characteristics and strategic leadership qualities associated with acquisitive growth through “absorption” and “diversification”. A study of the International Telephone and Telegraph Company (ITT) organizational growth strategies from 1920 to 1997 reveals that senior managers adopt the rational decision‐making model when organizational growth through acquisition involves absorption, and the political model when organizational growth calls for diversification. A contingency historical study of ITT demonstrates two important periods in ITT’s organizational life cycles ‐ one of growth (1920‐early 1970s) and one of consolidation/stability (from mid‐1970 to the present time). Contingency models indicate that differences in organizational growth strategies arise due to differences in environmental factors characterizing each period as organizations pass through several stages of growth in their life cycles.

This study aims to bridge the gap in understanding the effects of organizational culture on supply chain integration (SCI) by examining the relationships between organizational cultures and SCI. The extant studies investigating the antecedents of SCI focus mainly on environments, interfirm relationships and other firm-level factors. These studies generally overlook the role of organizational culture. The few studies that do examine the effects of organizational culture on SCI show inconsistent findings.

By placing organizational culture within the competing value framework (CVF), this study establishes a conceptual model for the relationships between organizational culture and SCI. The study uses both a contingency approach and a configuration approach to examine these proposed relationships using data collected from 317 manufacturers across ten countries.

The contingency results indicate that both development and group culture are positively related to all three dimensions of SCI. However, rational culture is positively related only to internal integration, and hierarchical culture is negatively related to both internal and customer integration. The configuration approach identifies four profiles of organizational culture: the Hierarchical, Flexible, Flatness and Across-the-Board profiles. The Flatness profile shows the highest levels of development, group and rational cultures and the lowest level of hierarchical culture. The Flatness profile also achieves the highest levels of internal, customer and supplier integration.

This study is subject to several limitations. In theoretical terms, this study does not resolve all of the inconsistencies in the relationship between organizational culture and SCI. In terms of methodology, this study uses cross-sectional data from high-performance manufacturers. Such data cannot provide strong causal explanations, but only broad and general findings.

This study reminds managers to consider organizational culture when they implement SCI. The study also provides clues to help managers in assessing and adjusting organizational culture as necessary for SCI.

This study makes two theoretical contributions. First, by examining the relationships between organizational culture and SCI in a new context, the findings of the study provide additional evidence to reconcile the previously inconsistent findings on this subject. Second, by departing from the previous practice of investigating only particular dimensions of organizational culture, this study adopts a combined contingency and configuration approach to address both the individual and synergistic effects of all dimensions of organizational culture. This more comprehensive approach deepens our understanding of the relationship between organizational culture and SCI.

Despite the strategic importance of the approaches, most of the approaches consider “internal fit” or “external fit”, and do not consider the role of creative climate. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between approaches to strategic human resource management (SHRM) and organisational performance through a creative climate.

This paper has divided into three parts. First, the paper explores the literatures on the constructs. Second, it examines the relationships between constructs dealt with in the literature. Third, the review identifies the gaps in the literature and describes future recommendations of research for this field.

This study can serve as a starting point for future research on the relationship between SHRM practices, creative climate and organisational performance in terms of financial, human resource and customer retention. Researchers and practitioners need to understand the relationship between the three constructs.

The paper helps managers need to design strategic HRM policies and practices that are aligned with creative climate and organisational performance. Furthermore, it helps scholars/researchers focus their research on the relationship between HRM approaches (universal and contingency approaches), organisational performance and examining the role of creative climate as a mediator to overcome its causal limitations.