Processes of manufacturing and corporate strategy making: mutual influence and performance

The authors identify three processes of making corporate strategy and extend these to the processes of making manufacturing strategies; these are rationality, interaction and assertiveness. For different combinations of processes used for making corporate and manufacturing strategies, the authors give propositions to predict their effectiveness. They found substantial support for these propositions from the data on 24 leading manufacturing firms. Firms with “incremental” manufacturing strategies were less effective, and firms with “bold” manufacturing strategies which also emphasized the marketing function were most effective. Limited data revealed that to achieve effectiveness firms with “incremental” manufacturing strategies must also pursue “integrated” manufacturing strategies