The study of business strategies has drawn so much attention among business practitioners and academic researchers in the last two decades as globalization came fully into limelight. However, in Nigeria, there are few studies conducted to investigate the relationship between business strategies and firm profitability. This paper examined the effect of business strategies on profitability of selected flour milling companies in Nigeria. Data were collected through validated questionnaire administered to sixty eight respondents after establishing the reliability test. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to depict competitive advantage as a function of business strategies. The results (R 2 is 0.396 (F(6, 597) = 66.953, p=0.000) indicated that business strategies significantly affected profitability. However, the study also indicated that cost leadership (β = 0.288, t = 6.226, p<0.05), product differentiation (β = 0.283, t = 6.039, p<0.05) business diversification (β = 0.110, t = 2.415, p<0.05)and regrouping (β = 0.127, t = 2.933, p<0.05) have positive and significant effect on firm profitability in selected flour milling companies in Nigeria The result further showed that backward integration (β = 0.030, t = 0.779, p>0.05) has a positive and insignificant effect on firm profitability while market development (β =-0.015, t =-0.381, p>0.05) has a negative and insignificant effect on firm profitability in selected flour milling companies in Nigeria. The study recommends that production firms most especially the flour millers should integrate their business strategies with their day to day operations efficiently to enhance their backward integration, and market development they should also adopt the strategy/models that was developed in this study to align with their operations and target customers.

The authors argued from business strategies perspective to understand competitive advantage among homogenous producers. The population consisted of top and functional managers of flour mill companies in Lagos State, Nigeria. Cross sectional survey research design was adopted and primary data were collated and used. The research instrument was an adapted questionnaire. Its validity and reliability were statistically determined. Six hundred and twenty copies of the questionnaire were administered and 605 retrieved. Econometric equation was formulated and multiple regression analysis was employed for data analysis. Business strategies were found to have significantly affected competitive advantage. The study recommended product differentiation and portfolio diversification in order to achieve competitive advantage.

Innovation is all about products and services that deal with the implementation of some major processes which has to do with the firm's competitive advantage (Maury, 2018) Researchers, (Mennens, Gils, Schröder, & Letterie 2018: Győri, Czakó, & Horzsa 2019) have made suggestion that firms that usually engage in developing innovative products and services are inclined to compete more successfully and are usually faced with competition through the development of new products and services. To keep their competitive edge, successful firms must be in a continuous race for improvement because innovation is a clear and present danger to all firms. The concept of disruptive innovation, as illustrated in Hacklin, Björkdahl, and Wallin, (2018) describes a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitors.