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Amidst rapid development in emerging economies, greater emphasis on public–private partnerships and a more complex regulatory environment, nonmarket strategy (NMS) is now widely viewed as a key component of a firm’s overall strategy. This paper aims to investigate how nonmarket and market strategies are influenced by strategic uncertainties and capabilities and ultimately drive firm performance.

A survey addressing strategic uncertainties, capabilities, NMS and market strategy and firm performance was administered online to 193 practicing managers in the USA. Measures for competitive strategy (i.e. cost leadership and differentiation), NMS, management and marketing capabilities, competitive and technology uncertainties and firm performance were adopted from or based on previous work. Hypotheses were tested via SmartPLS.

Emphasis on NMS was linked to high marketing capability, high competitive uncertainty and high technology uncertainty. Cost leaders were more likely than differentiators to emphasize on NMS, although all three strategies were positive drivers of performance. NMS appears to be viewed as a part of an integrated strategic approach by managers in many organizations.

The sample included mangers in multiple industries. Self-typing scales were used to assess strategic emphasis and firm performance.

Emphasis on NMS can promote firm performance, but the relationship is complex. Strategic managers should align the NMS with organizational capabilities and a market-oriented strategy appropriate for the firm.

This paper provides empirical support for a model linking select strategic uncertainties, capabilities, market strategy and NMS and firm performance. It supports NMS as a key performance driver, but with links to uncertainties and capabilities that differ from those of market strategies.

The need to assess the perceptions of tomorrow's managers remains critical to forecasting social changes in the management environment. This study examines the views of upper division business students at three diverse American institutions. Findings suggest that: (1) women and men both advocate more participation in decision making, (2) women and men both recognize the seriousness of sexual harassment in the workplace, (3) minority students demonstrate the greatest interest in entrepreneurial careers, and (4) support for drug testing is relatively strong except for suspicions about those doing the testing.

Adapting a concept from the biological sciences, organizational researchers have proposed a life cycle of organizational development from birth to death. Several distinct models have been postulated, ranging from three to ten stages. This paper proposes a five‐stage model and tests it empirically to assess the specific stage of the life cycle of any organization. Results of a twenty‐item scale that captures managers' perceptions of their firms' position in the life cycle are discussed. Knowledge of an organization's present position or stage of development can aid top managers in understanding the relationships between organizational life cycle, competitive strategy, and performance.

Revisits Parnell and Bell’s arguments that managers have different propensities for participative decision making (PPDM) and develops a modified scale to measure the construct which includes commitment and cultural components. Specifically, findings suggest that a manager’s PPDM is a function of four core factors: beliefs concerning the effectiveness ofparticipation, perceptions about the effect of participation on the manager’s power, theculture of the organization in which the manager operates, and the presence of a genuine commitment to participative decision making.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate linkages among competitive strategy, strategic capabilities, environmental uncertainty, and organizational performance in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in China and the USA.

In China, a survey was administered to managers of SMEs in Shanghai and Guangzhou. In the USA, a survey was administered to managers of SMEs in three major cities. Competitive strategy, capabilities, uncertainty, and performance were measured by previously validated scales.

Findings support the integrity Miles and Snow generic strategic typology. Performance satisfaction was significantly lower in firms employing a reactor strategy as opposed to those employing prospector, defender, or analyzer strategies. Additional support was found for the concept of strategic clarity, as businesses reporting moderate strategic clarity had lower levels of satisfaction with performance than those reporting either a single strategy or a combination emphasis on three equal strategies.

Chinese SMEs tend to prefer cost-based approaches to their local markets. A differentiation market approach is challenging in most local Chinese economies due to the low wages of most jobs in an economy that is still largely centrally planned. In the USA, more disposable income leads to more market opportunities. While this situation is gradually changing in China, it is not at a point where SMEs feel comfortable pursuing totally differentiated strategies.

Several distinctions in competitive strategy, capabilities, and environmental uncertainty between China and the USA are recognized by analysis. Analyzers and defenders in Chinese SMEs tend to follow industry prospectors with lower prices and/or superior service. They might change strategies after gaining a foothold in the market. Performance for SMEs with low strategic clarity often depends on established guanxi with governmental agencies or stated-owned enterprises, a situation very different from that in the USA.

This study aimed to examine the prospective role played by perceived environmental uncertainty in the strategy‐performance linkage among SMEs in China, Turkey, and the USA.

The strategic group level of analysis was employed. Generic strategy, environmental uncertainty, and performance were measured by previously validated scales.

The combination strategy‐performance linkage was supported in Turkey and the USA. In China, the highest performing strategic group emphasized a focus orientation accompanied by neither cost leadership nor differentiation, and the lowest performing group was comprised of low cost businesses.

This study supported the combination strategy thesis in the USA and Turkey. In China, conceptualizations of strategy appear to be more complex. High performing businesses emphasized a focus strategy, but not necessarily in concert with either cost leadership or differentiation.

Firms in the USA place a great deal of emphasis on uniqueness and individuality, translating into approaches based on differentiation and innovation. However, attempting to control costs and differentiate without a defined niche leaves a firm vulnerable to larger, more experienced competition.

This study addresses the death of strategy‐performance investigations in developing nations. Findings presented run counter to the notion that successful businesses in emerging economies emphasize cost leadership vis‐à‐vis differentiation. Conventional wisdom suggests that high performers tend to perceive greater certainty about their environments. The present analysis not only rejected this finding, but suggests that the opposite might be true.

Middle and lower‐level managers play a significant role in the strategic management process, primarily in the execution stage. However, strategic diffusion – the extent to which a strategy is effectively executed and becomes an integral part of the organization – varies across organizations. This paper aims to examine the strategic diffusion process in two emerging economies, Mexico and Peru.

Parnell's strategic diffusion scale (SDS) was adopted for this study. Respondents also completed Cook and Wall's nine‐item organizational commitment instrument and a three‐item scale measuring satisfaction with firm performance. Surveys were translated into Spanish and completed by 218 Mexican and 270 Peruvian managers.

Strategic diffusion was linked to performance satisfaction among both Mexican and Peruvian managers. Overall, Mexican managers produced higher scores on the strategic diffusion scale (SDS) than did their Peruvian counterparts. The link between strategic diffusion and organizational commitment among middle and lower‐level managers remains unclear.

This study supports the strategic diffusion construct and the SDS. Three items in the scale were problematic in certain instances, however. The present study linked strategic diffusion to performance satisfaction in both Mexico and Peru. As expected, Mexican managers exhibited higher SDS scores than did their Peruvian counterparts. The link between strategic diffusion and organizational commitment was not strong, however. Additional research is needed in this area.

Middle and lower level managers in different countries have different views on the process of strategic diffusion. These distinctions are cause by a number of factors, including stages in the economic development cycle, organizational culture, and widely accepted management practices. Executives seeking to implement strategies should recognize the three key components of strategic diffusion – understanding, involvement, and commitment – and how they are influenced by national contexts.

There is a dearth of research assessing management behaviors in emerging nations. It is also important to learn more about processes associated with strategy execution in different organizations. This paper addresses both needs by assessing strategic diffusion in Mexico and Peru.

This paper seeks to investigate the link between business strategy and performance, giving special attention to the composition of combination strategies.

A survey assessing business strategy and performance was completed by managers representing 277 retail businesses in the USA.

The combination strategy was associated with higher performance in some but not all instances. Strategic clarity – the extent to which a single strategy reflects the organization's strategic intent – was also associated with organizational performance. Businesses with high and low strategic clarity outperformed those with moderate strategic clarity.

This paper investigated US retailers and did not assess businesses in other industries or countries. Future research that seeks to replicate these findings is warranted.

Businesses can pursue either a single generic strategy (i.e. low cost or differentiation, prospector or defender or analyzer, etc.) or attempt to combine two or more strategies. Porter and others have warned that a combination strategy is suboptimal because of trade‐offs inherent in “pure” strategies. While some businesses have pursued a combination strategy and performed poorly, others have done so with great success. Evidence presented in the paper attempts to resolve this conundrum, suggesting that high‐performing businesses either concentrate on a single strategy along the Miles and Snow typology or combine all three equally. Those attempting intermediate combinations are more likely to perform poorly.

The paper proposes the notion of strategic clarity and provides evidence that supports a U‐shaped link between strategic clarity and business performance.

With heightened regulations in many nations, increasing political influence, greater emphasis on government-business partnerships, and the rapid development of emerging markets, the notion of nonmarket strategy (NMS) is now widely viewed as a key component of a firm’s overall strategic orientation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors associated with strategic political emphasis (SPE), a key part of NMS.

A survey instrument including items related to competitive strategy, environmental uncertainty, strategic capability, performance, and SPE was administered to 275 managers in the USA. Strategy along Porter’s typology, strategic capabilities, uncertainty, and performance were measured via existing scales. Items were created to assess SPE.

Managers in firms with greater SPE also reported greater uncertainty about competition and markets, and lower capabilities with regard to management and technology. Managers in organizations with weaker market orientations (MOs) – including greater uncertainty about competition and markets, and lower capabilities in management and technology – emphasized greater SPE. Managers reporting lower capability levels in their firms were more likely to report higher SPE and to have increased SPE in the last decade. Select uncertainties and capabilities – not competitive strategy per se – appears to have prompted an increase in SPE in these firms.

An effective NMS is vital from the perspectives of both profit maximization for shareholders and the satisfaction of broader, social objectives. However, many executives are trained to excel in the market arena and may not have the skill set and temperament necessary for success in NMS and specifically, the political arena. Moreover, SPE and market strategies are not always consistent, challenging executives to integrate and balance the two orientations.

The authors evaluate the evolution of the intellectual structure of strategic management (SM) by employing a document co-citation analysis through a network analysis for academic citations in articles published in the Strategic Management Journal (SMJ).

The authors employed the co-citation analysis through the social network analysis.

The authors outlined the evolution of the academic foundations of the structure and emphasized several domains. The economic foundation of SM research with macro and micro perspectives has generated a solid knowledge stock in the literature. Industrial organization (IO) psychology has also been another dominant foundation. Its robust development and extension in the literature have focused on cognitive issues in actors' behaviors as a behavioral foundation of SM. Methodological issues in SM research have become dominant between 2004 and 2011, but their influence has been inconsistent. The authors concluded by recommending future directions to increase maturity in the SM research domain.

This is the first paper to elucidate the intellectual structure of SM by adopting the co-citation analysis through the social network analysis.