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Companies are increasingly using management development (MD) initiatives as a means of enhancing their capability to realise their business goals. Therefore, the linkage between MD and strategic management should be better understood. Aims to examine this situation.

By utilising quantitative statistical methods, the paper studies the linkage from the perspective of individual managers, and analyses how the various forms of the linkage relate to managers’ strategic awareness and perceived value of MD.

Empirical evidence from Finnish managers implies that the perceived effectiveness of MD and the level of strategic awareness of managers are highly inter‐related.

The paper helps researchers and practitioners to better understand the dynamic and holistic nature of MD and highlights the need to study strategic management and organisational learning increasingly from the perspective of individuals rather than from that of the whole organisation.

This article introduces the term human resource development (HRD) orientation as the key factor affecting the use of training and development activities in companies. In the study, several strategic approaches to HRD are identified and treated as components of HRD orientation. The usability of the concept is tested with data from Finnish metals industry companies. The results show that the differences in the way companies perceive the role of HRD in business are related to the differences in HRD orientation. In addition, the most common forms of HRD orientation are studied. The usability of the concept is tested with data from Finnish metals industry companies. The results show that the differences in the way companies perceive the role of HRD in business are related to the differences in HRD orientation. In addition, the most common forms of HRD orientation are studied. It is suggested that companies tend to choose between emphasizing either training needs or strategic capabilities in their HRD.

The linkage between strategy and performance is central to strategic management. Empirical studies have nevertheless produced mixed results on the nature of this relationship, and in recent decades, very little advancement has been made in research aimed at elucidating this relationship. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to identify the approaches to the strategy-performance linkage in previous studies and defines five principles that should characterize future research on this relationship. The paper develops a novel research design that follows these principles and tests the usefulness of this research design in practice.

This paper is exploratory in nature and its empirical methods include content analysis, multidimensional scaling, and cluster analysis. The primary difference between this paper and studies in the mainstream literature on the linkage between strategy and performance relates to the application of an endogenous strategy typology instead of predefined strategy categories.

The analysis shows that the adopted research design based on five principles is applicable to research on the linkage between strategy and performance and that such a research design produces meaningful results. The results support the findings of earlier studies regarding the potential of “hybrid” strategies for achieving superior firm performance.

This paper challenges the dominance of generic strategies in research on the strategy-performance linkage and provides statistical data that lay the foundation for more detailed investigation on this relationship. The paper argues for a contextually bound view of strategic management.

This paper invigorates the discussion on the linkage between strategy and performance, which has long been diminishing as a research topic in the literature because of contradictory results and the lack of fresh research opportunities. This paper further introduces a methodology that has been underutilized in the study of strategic management.

Nowadays, more than ever before, the processes of human resource management (HRM) are expected to play a role in building the competitive edge of a company. This article argues that human resource development (HRD) can give a major contribution to competitiveness when it is employed for creating and sustaining the internal capabilities of an organization. With the help of theoretical discussion and qualitative research, the article builds a framework for capability‐driven HRD, which implies that clarity, integration, involvement, and evaluation are the critical characteristics of managerial practices when striving for the adaptation of the capability approach. The framework offers a tool for practitioners to assess the abilities of their organizations to utlize the potential of HRD in reaching strategic goals.

This article is a theoretical presentation of human resource development (HRD) within the context of strategic management. It represents a single component view of human resource management (HRM) by concentrating on developing human assets only. According to this view, HRM is too complex and multidimensional an entity to be handled as a set of people‐related activities in relation to strategy. The article presents conceptions of strategic HRD based on earlier theory, and deduces three distinct logics, labelled as need‐driven, opportunity‐driven, and capability‐driven approaches to HRD. These approaches are summarized in an integrated framework which is suggested as an illustration of the full potential of HRD’s contribution to the business success. Accounts of organizations adopting the approaches are presented.

The study investigates the development of three key strategic marketing constructs – market orientation, marketing-related business process capabilities and marketing performance measurement – as well as their performance implications over a period of six years in a Nordic setting. The aim of the study is to shed light on recent developments in contemporary strategic marketing, and thereby to identify managerially relevant points of focus for the future.

The study builds on a national-level survey study conducted among Finnish companies of various sizes representing different industries and market positions in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014. The data capture the development of strategic marketing over the most recent business cycle, from the upturn to the financial crisis of late 2008, the following downturn and the recent tentative recovery.

The findings shed light on the changing role of the three key strategic marketing constructs over the years. Particularly, the study supports the recent notion that market orientation is no longer a differentiator, but a standard. Furthermore, the study sheds light on the varying role of marketing-related business process capabilities over the changing business cycle. Finally, the study shows that marketing performance measurement maintains its beneficial impact on firm performance across years and across the business cycle.

By investigating recent developments in the field of strategic marketing, taking into account the changing business cycle and the broader trends and developments in the field, this study provides insights for managers of both product and service businesses on how to better adjust their marketing efforts to the contemporary business environment and its economic development.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first comprehensive study on a national level that longitudinally investigates the role and impact of the three key strategic marketing constructs, with a particular focus on their relative performance impact over time.