Relating Porter’s Configuration/Coordination Framework to Competitive Strategy and Structural Mechanisms: Analysis and Implications

This article examines the categorization of business strategy in global industries according to Porter’s (1986) configuration/coordination framework. In particular; the relationships between cost/differentiation-based competitive strategies and configuration/coordination-based international strategy types are evaluated. The article also examines the relationship between patterns of configuration/coordination and the structural mechanisms of centralization, formalization and specialization. By examining patterns across 77 businesses, the article raises important questions about the interpretation and application of the configuration/coordination framework in determining broad organizational responses to globalization. In particular, the relationship between competitive strategy and international strategy is re-examined and extensions to the framework are proposed.

[1]  R. Coase.  The Nature of the Firm , 1937 .

[2]  C. Mills,et al.  The Theory of Social and Economic Organization , 1948 .

[3]  D. Pugh,et al.  Dimensions of Organization Structure , 1968 .

[4]  Gloria L. Lee,et al.  Dimensions of Organization Structure and their Context: A Replication , 1971 .

[5]  J. Child.  Organization Structure and Strategies of Control: A Replication of the Aston Study , 1972 .

[6]  Roger Mansfield,et al.  Bureaucracy and Centralization: An Examination of Organizational Structure. , 1973 .

[7]  B. C. Reimann.  On the Dimensions of Bureaucratic Structure: An Empirical Reappraisal , 1973 .

[8]  C. Prahalad,et al.  The strategic process in a multinational corporation , 1975 .

[9]  Y. Doz.  National policies and multinational management , 1976 .

[10]  A. V. D. Ven,et al.  A Framework For Organization Assessment , 1976 .

[11]  Jay R. Galbraith,et al.  Transfer of Managers as a Coordination and Control Strategy in Multinational Organizations. , 1977 .

[12]  J. Ford,et al.  Size, Technology, Environment and the Structure of Organizations , 1977 .

[13]  O. Williamson,et al.  Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications. , 1977 .

[14]  Richard H. Hall,et al.  Organizations: Structure and process , 1977 .

[15]  Philip M. Marcus,et al.  The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business , 1979 .

[16]  D. Lehmann.  Market research and analysis , 1979 .

[17]  Yves L. Doz,et al.  Global Competitive Pressures and Host Country Demands Managing Tensions in MNCs , 1981 .

[18]  Michael E. Porter,et al.  How Global Companies Win Out , 1982 .

[19]  Gérard Garnier,et al.  Context and Decision Making Autonomy in the Foreign Affiliates of U.S. Multinational Corporations1 , 1982 .

[20]  D. Hambrick.  An Empirical Typology of Mature Industrial-Product Environments , 1983 .

[21]  John E. Prescott,et al.  Competitive environments, strategic types, and business performance : an empirical analysis , 1983 .

[22]  Richard L. Daft,et al.  Organization Theory and Design , 1983 .

[23]  D. Schendel,et al.  An empirical analysis of strategy types , 1983 .

[24]  Girish N. Punj,et al.  Cluster Analysis in Marketing Research: Review and Suggestions for Application , 1983 .

[25]  D. Hambrick.  High Profit Strategies in Mature Capital Goods Industries: A Contingency Approach , 1983 .

[26]  A. Jaeger,et al.  Multinational Corporations: Control Systems and Delegation Issues , 1984 .

[27]  Gregory G. Dess,et al.  Porter's (1980) Generic Strategies as Determinants of Strategic Group Membership and Organizational Performance , 1984 .

[28]  R. J. House,et al.  Organizations: A Quantum View , 1984 .

[29]  Gregory G. Dess,et al.  Measuring organizational performance in the absence of objective measures: The case of the privately-held firm and conglomerate business unit , 1984 .

[30]  K. R. Harrigan.  An Application of Clustering for Strategic Group Analysis , 1985 .

[31]  大前 研一,et al.  Triad power : the coming shape of global competition , 1985 .

[32]  A. V. D. Ven,et al.  Alternative forms of fit in contingency theory. , 1985 .

[33]  M. Porter.  Competition in Global Industries , 1986 .

[34]  J. Fredrickson.  The Strategic Decision Process and Organizational Structure , 1986 .

[35]  Kathryn Rudie Harrigan,et al.  Matching vertical integration strategies to competitive conditions , 1986 .

[36]  Danny Miller,et al.  Psychological and Traditional Determinants of Structure. , 1986 .

[37]  William G. Egelhoff,et al.  Centralization in Headquarters–Subsidiary Relationships , 1986 .

[38]  Michael E. Porter,et al.  Changing Patterns of International Competition , 1986 .

[39]  David J. Miller,et al.  Configurations of strategy and structure: Towards a synthesis , 1986 .

[40]  William R. Fannin,et al.  National or global?—control vs flexibility , 1986 .

[41]  Danny Miller,et al.  Porter's (1980) Generic Strategies and Performance: An Empirical Examination with American Data , 1986 .

[42]  S. Ghoshal.  Global strategy: An organizing framework , 1987 .

[43]  C. Bartlett,et al.  Managing Across Borders: New Strategic Requirements , 1987 .

[44]  C. Hill.  Differentiation Versus Low Cost or Differentiation and Low Cost: A Contingency Framework , 1988 .

[45]  Alex Miller.  A taxonomy of technological settings, with related strategies and performance levels , 1988 .

[46]  J. Pearce,et al.  Planned patterns of strategic behavior and their relationship to business-unit performance† , 1988 .

[47]  A. Murray.  A Contingency View of Porter's “Generic Strategies” , 1988 .

[48]  David J. Miller,et al.  Relating Porter's Business Strategies to Environment and Structure: Analysis and Performance Implications , 1988 .

[49]  S. Ghoshal,et al.  Internal differentiation within multinational corporations , 1989 .

[50]  K. Ohmae,et al.  Managing in a borderless world. , 1989, Harvard business review.

[51]  B. R. Scott,et al.  Competitiveness: self-help for a worsening problem. , 1989, Harvard business review.

[52]  C. C. Snow.  Strategy, organization design, and human resource management , 1989 .

[53]  Allen J. Morrison,et al.  Strategies in Global Industries: How U.S. Businesses Compete , 1990 .

[54]  A. Morrison,et al.  An Empirical Analysis of the Integration-Responsiveness Framework in Global Industries , 1990 .

[55]  C. Prahalad,et al.  The Core Competence of the Corporation , 1990 .

[56]  Y. Doz,et al.  Managing DMNCs: A search for a new paradigm , 1991 .

[57]  Stephen J. Kobrin,et al.  AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DETERMINANTS OF GLOBAL INTEGRATION , 1991 .

[58]  Stephen Tallman.  Strategic management models and resource-based strategies among mnes in a host market , 1991 .