The Future of Strategy Implementation
Oxford Handbooks Online
The Future of Strategy Implementation
Michael A. Hitt, Susan E. Jackson, Salvador Carmona, Leonard Bierman,
Christina E. Shalley, and Douglas Michael Wright
The Oxford Handbook of Strategy Implementation
Edited by Michael A. Hitt, Susan E. Jackson, Salvador Carmona, Leonard Bierman, Christina E.
Shalley, and Douglas Michael Wright
Subject: Business and Management, Business Policy and Strategy, Innovation
Online Publication Date: Dec 2016 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190650230.013.25
Abstract and Keywords
Little systematic research has been done on strategy implementation, yet there is a body
of work providing guidance for implementation efforts. The authors examine three basic
collections of work on resources and governance, managing human capital, and
accounting-based control systems, explaining how these issues have implications for
strategy implementation. Although the chapters in this Handbook provide many useful
insights concerning issues that must be addressed in order to effectively implement
firms’ strategies, there is need for more and systematic work. The purposes of this final
chapter are to identify promising future research directions and to serve as a catalyst for
the creation of additional collections of work that can enhance our understanding of
strategy implementation. The five specific topics for which more work on strategy
implementation is needed are innovation and entrepreneurship, marketing strategies and
services, managing operations, managing financial assets and human capital, and
strategies (international, acquisitions, differentiation).
Keywords: strategy implementation, international strategy, acquisition strategy, differentiation strategy,
marketing strategy, managing resources, financial assets, human capital, innovation, entrepreneurship
Little systematic research exists on strategy implementation, yet there is a body of work
providing guidance for implementation efforts. This is evident from the work reported
within this Handbook, in which we examine three basic collections of work on resources
and governance, managing human capital, and accounting-based control systems. We
explained how the content of these collections have implications for strategy
implementation. Although the chapters in this Handbook provide many useful insights
concerning issues that must be addressed in order to effectively implement firms’
strategies, there is need for much more and systematic work. The purposes of this final
chapter are to identify promising future research directions and to serve as a catalyst for
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The Future of Strategy Implementation
the creation of additional collections of work that can enhance our understanding of
strategy implementation.
In the formulation and implementation of strategies, the firm’s external context is
important. Specifically, legal, regulatory, economic, and competitive environments play
critical roles in the development of strategies and in their implementation. Likewise, firm
characteristics such as corporate governance processes, ownership structures (especially
concentrated and institutional ownership), and available resources are important factors
that influence strategic decisions. Owners with concentrated equity in the firm and
boards of directors should provide oversight to ensure that decisions are made in the best
interests of shareholders, but a firm also must have the resources needed to implement
the strategies derived and it must establish a structure that facilitates the
implementation of the chosen strategies. Figure 1 illustrates a general framework for
understanding strategy implementation that includes these dynamics and suggests areas
for future research that we examine in this chapter.
As shown in Figure 1, there are five specific topics for which more work on strategy
implementation is needed. These include ways in which international strategies,
acquisition strategies, and differentiation strategies are implemented; how to effectively
manage financial assets and human capital, both of which can be especially critical in the
implementation of strategy; the design and implementation of effective operations such
as flexible production systems and a carefully coordinated and efficient supply chain; the
role of marketing tactics and the support services offered to customers, which are
especially important for firm strategies that rely heavily on differentiation; and, finally,
the special actions that are needed to implement innovation strategies and corporate
entrepreneurship. In the remainder of this chapter, we delve into these five
implementation foci and suggest possible directions for future research.
Implementation of Specific Strategies
International Strategy
International strategies have become exceedingly important given the interdependent
global economy, critical development of emerging economies, and global and regional
competitive landscapes. The market opportunities for firms both established and new
have grown dramatically, but the challenges are also greater. There is also a significant
amount of research on international strategies, as evidenced by the recent meta-analysis
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The Future of Strategy Implementation
of studies examining the relationship between internationalization and firm performance
(Marano, Arregle, Hitt, Spadafora, & van Essen, 2016). Specifically, Marano et al.
analyzed 359 studies of firms across 32 countries and found that a firm’s
internationalization–performance relationship was moderated by that firm’s home
country’s formal and informal institutions. Also, there is a significant amount of research
on the modes of international market entry, a major implementation question. More
recently, research on the choice of markets to enter and the mode of entry has focused on
regionalization or semi-globalization (Arregle, Miller, Hitt, & Beamish, 2013, 2016) and
on the effects of the home and host countries’ institutional environments on firm
strategies (Ahlstrom, Levitas, Hitt, Dacin, & Zhu, 2014; Hitt, Li, & Xu, 2016; Holmes,
Miller, Hitt, & Salmador, 2013). These areas offer significant opportunities for research
on international strategy implementation. For example, how do the means of
implementation affect the influence of a firm’s international strategy on the resulting
performance? What effect does the institutional environment have on the specific entry
modes chosen? How are the local foreign operations managed? These are very important
implementation questions (Hitt, 2016). How do firms using a semi-globalization strategy
navigate within geographic regions? Do they seek to maximize their economic
opportunities with arbitrage across different national institutional environments (Arregle
et al., 2013, 2016)? Thus, there are significant opportunities for new research and to
aggregate and evaluate the substantial amount of existing research to better understand
how firms implement their international strategies and how they can maximize their
economic returns in doing so.
Acquisition Strategies
It has been well known for some time that acquisitions on average create few if any
positive returns. An acquisition strategy is one of the major ways that firms seek growth.
The other major growth strategy is organic, by expanding current markets, developing
new markets for current products, or introducing new products. Acquisitions provide a
way of achieving major growth faster than through organic means. However, even though
acquisitions are a frequently used strategy, they often fail. And these failures are
commonly the result of ineffective implementation. For example, acquisitions have been
criticized because of the significant premium paid to acquire the target firm. This
premium, which is the amount exceeding the current market value of the target firm’s
assets, is based on the premise that the merged firms will create synergy (enhanced
value beyond the current value of the two firms operating independently; Sirower, 1997).
Yet the manner in which the merger is implemented often prohibits achievement of
synergy (Krishnan, Hitt, & Park, 2007). Krishnan and colleagues (2007) found that many
acquiring firms paying significant premiums greatly downsized the employee base of the
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The Future of Strategy Implementation
acquired firm in order to reduce costs. However, in so doing, the acquiring firm lost
valuable human capital that represented the potential value of the acquired firm. As a
result, Krishnan et al. (2007) found that the acquired firm was unable to achieve the
positive returns expected after the acquired firm’s operations were merged into the
acquiring firm.
A primary reason that acquisitions fail is the inability of the acquiring firm to effectively
integrate the acquired firm’s cultures, assets, and operations into the acquiring firm’s
operations (Haspeslagh & Jemison, 1991). Contrasting corporate cultures, unique central
information systems, increased turnover because the acquired firm’s employees feel
vanquished, and a lack of understanding of the true value of the assets acquired
contribute to the inability to achieve effective integration (Teerikangas & Joseph, 2012).
An additional goal in mergers and acquisitions is to learn and develop/acquire new
capabilities (Barkema & Schijven, 2008). It can be especially valuable to build
technological capabilities through acquisitions. Yet, such technological learning is only
possible through careful selection of targets to acquire, followed by highly effective
integration after the acquisition. Makri, Hitt, and Lane (2010) found that acquisitions in
which the two firms had complementary technologies and related science knowledge
were able to create new technological knowledge on which to build innovations. Learning
and building synergy can be more challenging in cross-border acquisitions (Hitt,
Harrison, & Ireland, 2001). Of course, an acquisition is a primary mode for entering a
foreign market and thus subject to the institutional complexities noted in the previous
section.
Of course, when acquisitions fail, corporations may need to develop and implement
divestment strategies (Brauer, 2006). Such strategies may include decisions on
refocusing, but divestment may also involve the sale of units that are performing well but
are non-core, some of which may be unwanted parts of recent acquisitions. The
implementation of these decisions may be voluntary or undertaken under some form of
pressure (Coyne & Wright, 1986). Corporations need to design effective policies and
processes at the board level; implementing divestment decisions requires that
corporations establish a process for selling the assets that includes mechanisms to decide
who the buyer(s) should be. Research is needed to determine what dimensions contribute
to the effectiveness of such a process.
Although recent treatises on mergers and acquisitions have identified these problems
(e.g., Faulkner, Teerikangas, & Joseph, 2012), much more research is needed to
understand how to effectively implement mergers and acquisitions (Hitt, King, Krishnan,
Makri, Schijven, Shimizu, & Zhu, 2012). For example, what actions are necessary to
ensure that acquiring firms are able to build their capabilities after making acquisitions?
How can acquiring firms best prevent undesirable turnover of the most valuable human
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The Future of Strategy Implementation
capital in the target firm after completing the acquisition? What can acquiring firms do to
effectively integrate a target firm that has a disparate culture from their own corporate
culture? Although not as extensive, there has been a growing amount of research on
creating value through acquisitions. An interesting phenomenon of late is the increasing
number of for-stock acquisitions undertaken for the primary goal of enhancing market
capitalization (because of the larger number of shares outstanding). Does this type of
acquisition truly create greater value, and how is such a merger implemented to create
that value? Even treatises on creating value through acquisitions have only a small focus
on the implementation of this strategy. Thus, aggregation of the research on specialized
topics such as learning, preventing turnover of valued human capital, and effective
integration could be especially valuable to increase our knowledge of mergers and
acquisitions.
Differentiation Strategy
Differentiation is a business-level strategy, whereas international and acquisition
strategies are more commonly pursued at the corporate level. A differentiation strategy is
designed to create superior value for the customer by providing them with products
having unique attributes relative to those offered by rivals. The products provided may be
innovative, of exceptionally high quality, and/or have support services that provide
significant value to the customers. The unique features must be provided at what the
customers perceive as a reasonable cost. If the intended differentiation is an innovative
product, the firm often must have a strong research and development (R&D) unit that
continuously develops innovative products, thus allowing the firm to maintain a
competitive advantage (Dunlap-Hinkler, Kotabe, & Mudambi, 2010; Levitas & Chi, 2010).
The innovation process also must be cost efficient in order for the firm to offer the
product to customers at a reasonable cost relative to the value provided by the product.
To implement a differentiation strategy, firms must first precisely determine how they
desire to distinguish their offering to customers. Then, these firms must ensure that they
have the capabilities to provide these distinguishing features. For example, can they
produce high-quality and desirably innovative products on a continuous basis? Do they
have the capabilities to provide superior service to the customers? Some firms attempt to
differentiate their products based on brand image, especially if that brand image is
perceived as standing for high quality or being innovative. To develop such a brand image
requires strong marketing capabilities to ensure that customers perceive the brand in the
way the company desires (Roberts & Dowling, 2003; Sorenson, 2014).
A number of research questions remain. For example, can firms provide consistent
superior value with a differentiation strategy, given the role of technology in product
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The Future of Strategy Implementation
marketing and service delivery and the growing capabilities of rivals to rapidly imitate
new product features? How does the increasing role of social media in marketing affect a
firm’s ability to differentiate its products? What roles do other stakeholders play in the
provision of a differentiated product? For example, how important are suppliers and
customers in helping to differentiate the product? There also is a need to aggregate
research on differentiation strategies and the actions necessary to implement them. Such
a review might have focused sections on each type of differentiation strategy, such as
innovative products, special and unique services, and high-quality and reputation/brand
image, followed by a compilation of the research on how to effectively implement these
particular forms of differentiation.
Managing Resources
Managing Financial Assets
Managers draw on accounting information to guide organizational investments, control
strategy implementation, and report to stakeholders. In particular, the effects of
traditional functions of accounting-based systems on the implementation of specific
strategies are of special interest. As noted earlier, both US and non-US firms are steadily
implementing internationalization strategies that provide firms with market opportunities
but also add considerable complexity to organizational actions and the reporting of
financial information related to them. In capital markets, English is the lingua franca of
global investors, which makes it important for non-US firms to communicate efficiently
with stakeholders to provide them with corporate disclosures. In a context that features
technological innovations, corporate disclosures to global investors are no longer
restricted to quantitative, hard-copy, financial statements and budgets, but also take the
form of verbal communications (e.g., conference calls) and narrative disclosures (e.g.,
financial narratives). Brochet, Naranjo, and Yu (2016) examine how language barriers
affect disclosures of non-US firms via conference calls and the effects of such reporting
practices on capital market reactions; they suggest that calls made by firms based in
countries with high language barriers feature complex expressions (e.g., non-standard
English), erroneous statements (e.g., frequent grammatical errors, passive voice, and
abnormal use of articles), or both, and that these issues affect how investors react to the
information provided in conference calls. In particular, Brochet et al. (2016) indicate that
negative market reactions are more likely when a firm is located in a non–Englishspeaking country and has more English-speaking analysts participating in the call.
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A sparse but growing stream of accounting research examines the specifics of narrative
disclosures. Although financial narratives constitute a central aspect of financial
reporting, standard setters largely focus on quantitative data, and, hence, firms have
“considerable latitude over both the aspects of financial performance they choose to
emphasize and the language they choose to describe performance” in the qualitative
information provided (Henry & Leone, 2016: 153). Lang and Stice-Lawrence (2015)
examined textual disclosures for more than 15,000 non-US firms from 42 countries for
the period 1998–2011 and analyzed length of disclosure, presence of boilerplates,
comparability with US and non-US firms, and complexity. As noted by Lang and SticeLawrence, these textual characteristics are of interest for a considerable number of
stakeholders (e.g., regulators, investors, and other users of financial information). Their
results indicate that the quality of financial narratives is higher in institutional
environments featuring stringent accounting standards, stronger oversight, and greater
demand for information. Furthermore, these findings suggest that institutional contexts
dominated by International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), US Generally Accepted
Accounting Principles (GAAP), cross-listing, and Big Audit Firms result in higher quality
textual narratives. Therefore, there is a need for research examining the use of nonEnglish textual disclosures and financial narratives as well as investigations addressing
the relationship between the tone of textual disclosures and the market reaction of
earnings announcements (e.g., press releases; see Henry and Leone, 2016).
External users of audited financial statements tend to consider them as objective, neutral
reports of organizational performance. However, this traditional view is challenged by
research examining the impact of individual characteristics of accounting and auditing
experts on financial reporting. Knechel, Vanstraelen, and Zerni (forthcoming) analyzed
the impact of audit partners on audit outcomes. Using a sample of Swedish firms during
the period 2001–2008, they found that aggressive and conservative audit styles persist
with individual audit partners over time and that the market recognizes and places
differing values on audit partner reporting styles. In particular, Knechel et al. suggested
that the market penalizes firms audited by partners with a history of aggressive goingconcern opinions or accrual reporting through higher implicit interest rates, lower credit
ratings, and higher assessed insolvency risks.
Therefore, further research may focus on those characteristics of audit partners’ identity
and performance that matter to audit firms, regulators, and markets. There is also need
for more research on the effect of financial disclosures on how firms manage financial
assets to implement strategies over time. What types of financial information are
emphasized by US and non-US firms? How can non-US firms enrich the communication of
their financial disclosures? A compilation of the existing research on financial disclosures
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and their effect on how managers implement strategies could add value to research in
both the accounting and strategic management fields.
Managing Human Capital
As noted in Chapter 1, human capital is a strategic resource. Human capital is composed
of individual employees’ knowledge, skills, and capabilities. In turn, human capital partly
or largely comprises an organization’s capabilities and is used to deploy them. Thus,
based on the firm’s human capital, managers make decisions and take actions assigning
tasks to employees that are designed to implement the firm’s strategy (Greer, Lusch, &
Hitt, 2016). In short, managers leverage the firm’s human capital to engage the
organizational capabilities in ways that are designed to implement the firm’s strategy.
According to the behavioral perspective of strategic human resource management (HRM;
see Jackson, 2013; Schuler & Jackson, 1987), effective strategy implementation involves
understanding the essential employee role behaviors needed for implementation and then
designing or adopting management practices to encourage and support those behaviors.
Examples of management practices that can be used to shape a firm’s human capital and
its behavioral repertoire include methods for attracting, selecting, developing,
motivating, and retaining talent that create value for the firm’s customers and thereby
create a competitive advantage (Schuler & Jackson, 1987; Vomberg, Homburg, &
Bornemann, 2015).
Human resource management systems can help develop the skills of individual employees
and manage their performance, but, for most firms, it is not sufficient to attend to the
human capital of individual employees to ensure effective strategy implementation. Also
needed are policies and processes that promote coordination among units inside the firm
and collaboration with external partners (Jackson, Chuang, Harden, & Jiang, 2006). That
is, effective HRM systems help build both human capital and the social capital that binds
together members of a firm and promotes the transfer of explicit and tacit knowledge
that enhances the firm’s knowledge base (Adler & Kwon, 2002; Chuang, Jiang, & Jackson,
2016; Ployhart & Moliterno, 2011). Effective HRM systems help ensure that the firm has
access to the appropriate human capital needed to build essential strategic capabilities,
such as collaborating across units within the firm and building strong relationships with
critical external stakeholders such as customers and suppliers.
A strategic perspective on managing human and social capital recognizes that there is
“no one best way” to manage the essential human resource (people). Rather, firms must
effectively align their people management approach with various firm characteristics—
including business strategies—as well as conditions in the external environment (Jackson,
Schuler & Jiang, 2014). For example, Baird and Meshoulam (1988) argued that HRM
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activities evolve through developmental stages—as do organizations—and effectiveness is
greatest when the developmental stage of HRM activities matches the organization’s
developmental stage.
Almost 30 years ago, an empirical study reported results from a large-sample test of
hypotheses derived from the emerging strategic HRM perspective (Jackson, Schuler, &
Rivero, 1989). Organizational characteristics such as industry, the pursuit of innovation
as a competitive strategy, manufacturing technology, and organizational structure were
examined as predictors of numerous HRM practices in 267 organizations. Among the
significant conclusions from this study was the important influence of a firm’s innovation
strategy on HRM practices. Specifically, the authors found that HRM systems comprising
practices that ensure selectivity in staffing, performance-based pay, and enhanced
employee opportunity through participation in decision-making result in higher levels of
organizational effectiveness. More recently, a large study of US motor carriers found that
HRM practices can enhance the effectiveness of firms in the industry, providing further
support for the value of adopting a systems theory perspective to ensure internal
alignment and consistency in the messages employees receive about what behaviors are
most valued by the firm (Delery & Gupta, 2016).
Aligning the firm’s approach to managing its human capital can be extremely complex
because solutions must achieve internal alignment while also being responsive to various
external conditions, including cultural norms, regulatory policies, labor market
conditions, competitors’ actions, and the firm’s reputation resulting from its past actions
(Delery & Doty, 1996; Jackson & Schuler, 1995). This alignment promotes greater
engagement among the firm’s workforce. Barrick, Thurgood, Smith, and Courtright
(2015) argued that workforce engagement was critical for the implementation of a firm’s
strategy by top managers. An engaged workforce enhances coordination and
collaboration among units and employees, which facilitates strategy implementation
(Sull, Homkes, & Sull, 2015). But there are likely to be contextual influences on the
positive effects of human resource systems. For example, the ability of these systems to
create social capital with external parties is partly dependent on the level of trust that
exists between the parties (e.g., with customers) that has developed over time and the
firm’s internal corporate culture as well (Sirmon, Gove, & Hitt, 2008; Sirmon & Hitt,
2003).
Although critical for effective strategy implementation, the effects of human capital on
strategy implementation are not yet fully understood. Thus, much more research is
needed to understand how human capital resources contribute to effective
implementation of strategy (for a detailed discussion of potential fruitful new research
directions, see Schuler & Jackson, 2014). For example, specifically, how does human
capital contribute to firm capabilities? Are certain forms of human capital more important
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than others? How can human capital resources be most effectively deployed to facilitate
strategy implementation? What, if any, role does a firm’s human capital play in decisions
about the likelihood of successful implementation of alternative strategies that could be
pursued by a firm? Is there a cascading effect of human capital through the managerial
ranks in the implementation of strategy? Substantial research has demonstrated the
criticality of human capital for firm effectiveness in general, and, more recently, there
has been a growing body of research on the role of human capital in strategy
implementation specifically (e.g., Burton-Jones & Spender, 2011; Ketchen, Crook, Todd,
Combs, & Woehr, 2017; Wright, Coff, & Moliterno, 2014). Thus, there is a need for a
compilation of research on human capital that helps us to understand its role in the
implementation of strategy.
Managing Operations
A critical component of strategy implementations is managing a firm’s operations to
provide the desired output. In fact, some describe operations as an input–output system.
Hitt, Xu, and Carnes (2016) identified several major foci in the research on operations
management. These include supply chain management, operations strategy, performance
management, and product/service innovation (Pilkington & Meredith, 2009; Taylor &
Taylor, 2009). In this section, we examine the first three foci, with the fourth one
examined in a separate section on innovation and entrepreneurship later in this chapter.
The supply chain envelopes the upstream and downstream flow of activities (including
products, services, finances, information, etc.) in which the firm engages, beginning with
the ultimate supplier and extending across the various activities to the ultimate customer.
Highly relevant are the outcomes of supply chain activities, including asset utilization,
costs, revenues, and customer satisfaction. The ultimate goals of managing the supply
chain are to create value for the customer and to enhance profitability at each stage in
the chain while creating this value. Not only must each activity in the chain be managed,
but all should also be managed collectively to ensure that the activities and outputs of
each are coordinated and integrated (Williams, Maull, & Ellis, 2002). In effect, the firm’s
capabilities should be integrated across the supply chain to leverage their outcomes in
ways that contribute to a competitive advantage. Because some external partners in a
supply chain provide resources, the relationships must be managed to allow the
integration of their resources so that they contribute to the firm’s capabilities (Hitt et al.,
2016).
An operations strategy defines how capabilities are used (e.g., processes) to achieve the
firm’s goals. The operations output includes products/services created, product quality
and reliability, customized products, product modularity/flexibility, and after-sales
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The Future of Strategy Implementation
service, among others (Ahmed, Montagno, & Firenze, 1996). The operations strategy
connects operations to business- and corporate-level strategies. In fact, proper strategic
positioning requires that the operations’ capabilities be aligned with the firm’s strategy
to implement it in ways that achieve the firm’s strategic goals (Anderson, Cleveland, &
Schroeder, 1989; Hitt et al., 2016). Essentially, for the firm to effectively implement its
strategy requires that all of its business functions and operations activities be aligned and
integrated (Pilkington & Meredith, 2009).
Liyanage and Kumar (2003) suggested that performance management is intended to
ensure that the firm creates unique value for its customers by having strong internal
efficiency and effectiveness in the firm’s operations. Thus, managers attempt to meet
customers’ requirements through an economic use of the firm’s resources. On the
surface, this statement seems rather straightforward, but the processes involved are
complex. First, managers must orchestrate resources to create capabilities and leverage
the resulting capabilities to provide the desired level of product and service that satisfies
customers’ needs better than rivals. Yet, they must also be efficient in their use of
resources so that the costs are reasonable. Increasingly, firms also are being pressured to
ensure that their operations are not damaging to the environment, with such pressure
coming from local communities, governmental and nongovernmental agencies, and even
from employees. Thus, an overemphasis on satisfying the customer could create value for
the customer but harm the firm’s ability to create value for the firm’s other stakeholders.
Alternatively, too much emphasis on efficient use of resources may result in low costs of
operations but also an inability to satisfy customers’ needs and establish a positive
corporate reputation. Thus, multiple goals must be balanced to ensure the satisfaction of
many stakeholders with diverging priorities.
Although there has been a growing amount of quality research in operations management
and supply chain management, little of it has addressed linkages to firm strategy and
especially not the linkage with strategy implementation. Yet to better understand how
firms implement their strategies, we must delve deeper into these linkages with
operations management. Thus, there are a number of relevant research questions that, if
addressed, could enhance our understanding of strategy implementation. For example,
precisely what is the relationship between a firm’s operations and its achievement of
strategic goals? What role does the supply chain play in implementing a firm’s strategy?
How does a firm integrate external resources from partners with internal resources to
create the capabilities necessary to implement the firm’s strategy? In the implementation
of a firm’s strategy, how do managers achieve synergy among the firm’s various supply
chain activities and operations functions? In addition to answering these and other
questions, there is an opportunity to compile and integrate the recent research in
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The Future of Strategy Implementation
operations management and supply chain management to identify how they contribute to
strategy implementation (e.g., see Kleindorfer, Singhal, & Van Wassenhove, 2005).
Marketing Strategies and Services
Marketing strategy is a critical component of strategy implementation. Most marketing
strategies in some way involve the 4Ps: product, price, place, and promotion (Goi, 2009).
The product is analyzed to identify those features that customers will find attractive, and
appropriate packaging is designed for the product. Price is a critical element because it
partly defines the value provided to the customer. Deciding on price is more complex
than it seems on the surface, however. What revenues are needed to cover costs and
provide a return? What price will customers pay for the product? Place commonly refers
to the location of the market and the channels used to deliver the product (e.g.,
wholesale, retail). Promotion decisions revolve around market positioning relative to
rivals’ products, suggesting two important questions. First, how are potential customers
informed of the product’s features and availability? Second, what support services are
needed for those buying the product?
These concerns appear to be straightforward, but the reality is usually much more
complex. For example, most firms commonly have multiple products and have to decide
how to position each one not only relative to rivals, but also relative to each of the firm’s
other products. Firms also must decide how to allocate resources to each product (e.g.,
sales force attention, advertising). Additionally, marketing actions often must be dynamic
in order to respond to a rival’s actions (e.g., changes in pricing or advertising, entry of
new products into the market). The changes made depend on the firm’s competitive
strategy used to engage its rivals in the marketplace. Therefore, if a firm uses a
differentiation strategy, it then implements that strategy through its market selection
(e.g., market niche), product choices and features thereof, its positioning in the market
relative to rivals, and its pricing strategy (e.g., high end of the market). These decisions
often require continuous evaluation based on their success and also based on
competitors’ actions and responses.
The preceding discussion reflects the traditional focus of marketing research. Another
highly popular emphasis in marketing research over the past two-and-a-half decades has
been that of market orientation. Market orientation is reflected in an organization’s
culture and produces actions designed to create superior value for customers and high
performance for the firm (Narver & Slater, 1990). It involves providing high-quality
products and services that continuously satisfy consumer needs and expectations. To do
this requires that the firm engage in market intelligence across the organization and that
it widely disseminate and effectively respond to the information provided by units
Page 12 of 23
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The Future of Strategy Implementation
throughout the organization (Jaworski & Kohli, 1993). Essentially, research has shown
that a strong market orientation promotes greater employee organizational commitment
and cohesiveness and higher business performance (Jaworski & Kohli, 1993).
Additionally, recent research has linked market orientation to a firm’s strategy. For
example, Matsuno and Mentzer (2000) found that a firm’s strategy moderated the
relationship between market orientation and firm performance.
Vargo and Lusch (2004) propose the emergence of a new dominant logic in marketing.
The new logic emphasizes the role of providing services rather than products in
transactions/economic exchanges. They refer to this as a service-dominant logic. This
service perspective builds partly on market orientation because it promotes gaining
information to build customer insights and knowledge. It also emphasizes the
development of relationships involving collaboration and trust. Vargo and Lusch (2004)
refer to this as building enduring service-oriented relationships. The relationships endure
over time because status differentials are low and there is more honest dialogue between
the partners in these relationships (Greer, Lusch, & Vargo, 2016). This trust and greater
honesty, along with the free flow of information between parties, helps the firm to
provide more targeted and higher quality services that better meet customers’ needs
(Lusch, Vargo, & Malter, 2006). Webster and Lusch (2013) suggest that using this service
perspective helps to build relationships in the extended organization, such as with
suppliers and other stakeholders. Thus, this service perspective builds partnerships that
allow the co-creation of service and thereby facilitates the implementation of the firm’s
strategy (Greer, Lusch, & Hitt, 2016).
Vorhies and Morgan (2003) recommended organizing marketing activities to best
implement the firm’s strategy. They suggest that when marketing activities satisfy the
implementation requirements of a firm’s strategy, firm performance is enriched. Although
this work provides a good base, much more research is needed that links marketing
strategies and tactics with firm strategies. Undoubtedly, the relationship is strong
because most marketing activities facilitate or directly affect implementation of the firm’s
strategy. A number of potentially valuable research questions could be addressed. For
example, what marketing strategies are needed to implement differentiation and organic
growth strategies? Can a service-dominant logic broadly facilitate strategy
implementation? If so, how can it do so? Are marketing activities important in the
implementation of all strategies or only selected ones? In addition to answering these and
related research questions, there is a need to analyze, aggregate, and integrate the
research in marketing to demonstrate its value to strategy implementation.
Page 13 of 23
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The Future of Strategy Implementation
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
A prominent goal of most businesses is growth because growth is highly valued among
the firm’s stakeholders, particularly stockholders. Organic growth (defined earlier) is an
important alternative to achieve this goal. Organic growth often requires entrepreneurial
activities and innovation to identify market opportunities and develop innovative products
to exploit them (Ireland, Hitt, & Sirmon, 2003). In fact, some scholars argue that firms
need to engage in strategic entrepreneurship, which involves simultaneously seeking new
market opportunities and seeking to gain and sustain a competitive advantage (Hitt,
Ireland, Sirmon, & Trahms, 2011). Although opportunity seeking and advantage seeking
are not mutually exclusive and can be complementary, the behaviors required often
differ. Kuratko (2015) argues that corporate entrepreneurship entails cultivating
employee creativity and commitment to develop innovation; research suggests that many
firms pursuing innovation and corporate entrepreneurship do in fact adopt particular
management practices to support the required attitudes and behaviors (Hayton, 2005;
Jackson, Schuler, & Rivero, 1989). Indeed, innovation often may be necessary in order for
firms to achieve competitive advantage, and the innovation also may need to be
continuous if a firm is to sustain that advantage (Bowen & Ford, 2002). Interestingly,
after firms gain an advantage, they frequently reduce their risk by engaging in
incremental innovation (e.g., improving features of their current products) trying to
sustain their current advantage rather than attempting to create a new one.
There are two major stages in the innovation process: developing the innovations and
taking them to the market. To be innovative, firms must create a culture that encourages
it, as noted by Kuratko (2015). They must also create the structure to develop innovation
(e.g., R&D units, new product development teams; Garud, Tuertscher, & Van de Ven,
2015). Firms need to develop internal innovation capabilities by hiring people with the
required skills, nurturing their development, and then using those skills in ways that lead
to innovation. For example, building a collaborative climate and structuring crossfunctional teams facilitate innovation development (Greer & Stevens, 2015; Hitt, Nixon,
Hoskisson, & Kochhar, 1999). Firms also can seek knowledge resources from external
entities such as alliance partners to create innovation. Service-dominant logic suggests
the engagement of customers in co-creating innovation (Greer & Lei, 2012). Actions are
required to implement innovation strategies, but these strategies are second-level in that
they are often designed to help achieve the business strategy (e.g., differentiation). In
this way, developing innovation and taking it to the market are steps in the
implementation of a firm’s strategy.
Firms also may acquire innovation through acquisitions of carefully selected targets.
They do so to add new and/or different products to their product lines. This approach may
Page 14 of 23
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The Future of Strategy Implementation
be used in an attempt to sustain a competitive advantage (Hitt, Hoskisson, Johnson, &
Moesel, 1996). Although this may be successful, it may only sustain the advantage in the
short term unless the firm has strong internal innovative capabilities to continuously
produce more innovation. Alternatively, Makri and colleagues (2010) found that firms
making acquisitions of target firms with complementary science and technological
knowledge sets can enrich their innovation productivity, assuming that they are able to
extract that knowledge in the integration process. They also must have strong innovative
capabilities to inculcate the complementary knowledge stocks to create innovation.
Although there has been a significant amount of research on entrepreneurship and
innovation, more research is needed. For example research on innovation and research
on entrepreneurship have only rarely integrated the two topics. Yet creativity plays a role
in each, and one may facilitate the other (Shalley, Hitt, & Zhou, 2015). What are the
interrelationships among creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship? How can
entrepreneurial actions to identify market opportunities facilitate innovation? Can
innovation help firms to exploit market opportunities? What is the role of innovation and
entrepreneurship in the implementation of strategy? There are a number of major
treatises and compilations of research on innovation and on entrepreneurship. A new one
is needed to integrate these two research streams and analyze their role in strategy
implementation.
Further research is also needed on how entrepreneurial firms manage or orchestrate the
resources and capabilities they need to be able to identify and exploit entrepreneurial
and innovative opportunities. Emerging, largely conceptual work has focused on
identifying relevant constructs, mainly based on large corporations (Sirmon, Hitt, Ireland,
& Gilbert, 2011). But it is also becoming evident that these constructs may vary between
different types of firms. For example, Baert, Meuleman, DeBruyne, and Wright (2016)
show that how portfolio entrepreneurs orchestrate their resources and capabilities as
they build their portfolio of ventures is distinctive from the methods used in established
corporations.
Conclusion
We have highlighted potential research questions in each of the areas examined herein.
However, there is an even greater need for more research on strategy implementation
and for research to understand the links between implementation and the topic areas
examined in this chapter. Although the implementation of strategy is an important
determinant of which firms perform better than others, it has received little attention in
strategic management research. Likewise, many of the areas of knowledge and research
Page 15 of 23
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The Future of Strategy Implementation
identified in this chapter have significant implications for strategy implementation. Yet
little work has examined the linkages among these content areas and implementation,
although there is research relevant for implementation in several of these areas. Thus,
the need exists to identify, aggregate, and analyze this research to increase our
understanding of the implementation of strategy. The opportunities are great, and we
hope that this volume serves as a catalyst for greater strategy implementation research.
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Michael A. Hitt
Michael Hitt is currently a Distinguished Professor of Management at Texas A&M
University and holds the Joe B. Foster Chair in Business Leadership. He received his
Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. A recent article noted that he was one of the
top ten most cited authors in the management field over a 25-year period. He has
served as an editor of the Academy of Management Journal and is currently co-editor
of the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. He is a Fellow in the Academy of
Management and in the Strategic Management Society, and received an honorary
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doctorate (Doctor Honoris Causa) from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. He is a
former President of the Academy of Management and is the current Past President of
the Strategic Management Society. He has received awards for the best article
published in the Academy of Management Executive, Academy of Management
Journal and the Journal of Management. He has received the Irwin Outstanding
Educator Award and the Distinguished Service Award from the Academy of
Management.
Susan E. Jackson
Rutgers University
Salvador Carmona
I E Business School
Leonard Bierman
Texas A&M University
Christina E. Shalley
Christina Shalley is a Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource
Management in the College of Management at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Douglas Michael Wright
Mike Wright, Imperial College Business School.
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