This study examines the influence that national culture has on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and strategic alliance formation. Using a sample of small- to medium-sized enterprises located in Finland, Greece, Indonesia, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Sweden, we find that firms with higher levels of entrepreneurial orientation will use strategic alliances more extensively (i.e., use a greater number of agreements) than those firms with a weaker entrepreneurial orientation. Moreover, this relationship is strengthened in those countries that demonstrate either feminine or collective characteristics.

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This study examines the scanning/strategy relationship in the context‐specific setting of the health care industry. It extends the current research on the strategy/scanning relationship to include performance. Results confirm the moderating role played by environmental scanning activities in the strategy/performing relationship, thus providing further evidence for the contingency relationship among the environment, the organization's internal processes, and performance.

Data from a survey of 159 hospitals was used to test the relationship between market orientation and firm performance for low cost and differentiation strategies. Hospitals pursuing a differentiation strategy had stronger market orientation than those pursuing a cost leadership strategy. Market orientation had a more positive impact on the performance of organizations pursuing a differentiation strategy than on those pursuing a cost leadership strategy. In the cost leader group, the inter-functional coordination component of market orientation significantly affected firm performance, while in the differentiator group the customer orientation and competitor orientation components of market orientation had significant impact on performance. The implications of these findings for managers also are discussed.

This study examined the linkages between perceived environmental changes in the health care industry, corresponding strategic adaptations, and their impact on select performance measures as reported by managers. Results from a sample of 187 hospitals indicate that efficiency-oriented strategy is chosen more often by organizations that perceive their industry environment to be relatively stable and certain while market-focused strategies are chosen more often by organizations that perceive greater environmental instability and uncertainty.