Strategic goal accomplishment in export ventures: the role of capabilities, knowledge, and environment

Abstract

The management literature suggests that setting strategic goals facilitates the identification of appropriate business strategies and focuses management attention and available resources on their accomplishment, enabling subsequent goal realization. Yet, the literature also indicates that firms often find it difficult to realize their strategic goals and may find it even more challenging to do so when operating in foreign markets. However, little is known empirically about the extent to which strategic goals enable desired strategic positions to be achieved and factors that may affect this relationship. We examine this important issue using primary data from a sample of exporting manufacturers. Results support the existence of previously theorized strategic goal-realized strategic position gaps and show that these negatively impact performance. Thus, simply setting strategic goals does not necessarily aid in accomplishing the desired outcomes, and any failure to do so is costly. Drawing on organization theory, we find that internal capabilities and knowledge, and external market factors play important roles in minimizing such strategic goal-realized strategic position gaps. Specifically, we show that businesses with stronger architectural capabilities, those with higher levels of internationalization, and those operating in less dynamic market environments, are better able to realize their intended strategic objectives and thereby enjoy superior performance.

Research in marketing strategy

“…Our analyses also reveal that in the strategy formulation-content domain, there has been much less focus on studying the goals that marketing strategies are designed to achieve. In one recent example of such work, Spyropoulou et al (2017) examine the extent to which an SBU's strategic goal to establish a differentiated and/or cost-based advantage determines the subsequent achievement of such positional advantages at a later point in time. They find that while setting differentiation goals aids their subsequent achievement the same is not true for cost goals, and that market-based knowledge, marketing capabilities, and external market characteristics moderate the marketing strategy goal-positional advantage achieved relationship.…”

Architectural marketing capabilities of exporting ventures

“…In hypothesis 2, we argue that the distributor's marketing implementation capability complements the exporter's marketing planning capability. In other words, the distributor's marketing implementation capability plays a moderating role (Spyropoulou et al, 2018) on the exporter's marketing planning capability. However, while our results refute this hypothesis, our analysis demonstrates that the distributor's implementation capabilities partially mediate the exporter's planning capabilities.…”

“…More recently, implementation capability is presented as an important moderator for the exporter to achieve its strategic goals; namely, it enables exporters to execute their differentiation or cost strategy (Spyropoulou et al, 2018). Therefore, we similarly expect that the strategic marketing plan developed by the exporter will be enhanced by the marketing implementation capability of the distributor.…”

Influence Of Strategy Implementation On The Performance Of Maritime Cluster Firms In Kenya

“…Globally, several studies have clearly articulated the need for strategy formulation and implementation with greater importance attached to strategy formulation of the organization's growth in the 20th century (Cater & Pucko, 2012) since the level of performance and competitive position of an organization increases when the management implements effective strategies (Awino, 2013;Okwachi, Gakure & Ragui, 2013;Sage, 2015). The implementation of effective strategies has a substantial impact on the performance of organizations (Spyropoulou, Katsikeas, Skarmeas & Morgan, 2018).…”