Improving productivity through strategic alignment of competitive capabilities

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the productivity performance at the firm level from the perspective of manufacturing capability development at the process level. Moreover, it reveals how alignment of manufacturing capabilities with market requirements has influenced a firm’s productivity over a period that includes the 2008 global recession. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual framework was derived from established theories and employed as part of a case study design encompassing a multiple methods research approach. The case of a UK SME was selected to reflect some of the issues associated with the wider productivity stagnation experienced by the UK economy in recent years. Findings The firm’s manufacturing strategy had become incrementally misaligned with market requirements due to external changes in its business environment. The complex relationships between capabilities such as quality, speed and cost were characterised. Realigning the firm’s manufacturing strategy to regain productivity performance required a range of prioritised actions including capital investment and changes in management practices concerning bottom-up process improvement and regular, top-down strategy review. Research limitations/implications The findings of the case study cannot be generalised and the outcomes are specific to just one firm. However, the approach lends itself to replication, particularly within SMEs. Originality/value Prior studies have focussed on capability development at higher levels of abstraction. The study operationalized established theoretical perspectives at the firm level to derive context-based outcomes that can be used to improve manufacturing strategy alignment and productivity. Furthermore, the study contributes empirical evidence from the SME sector to the ongoing debate regarding the UK’s productivity puzzle.

The Impact of strategic Agility on the SMEs competitive capabilities in the Kingdom of Bahrain

“…Therefore, identifying and building a competitive advantage for SMEs in the global markets is essential. Hutton & Eldridge (2019) explains that some of the competitive capabilities that SMEs need to develop include essential elements such as quality, flexibility, delivery, and cost advantage, which vital to any organizational strategy. Therefore, aligning these elements to the organizational capability is vital to achieving competitive advantage.…”

Corporate sustainability and enterprise performance

“…EP can be measured by different approaches and measures (Bourne et al , 2018; Liu et al , 2018; Hutton and Eldridge, 2019). One of them is LP as the amount (volume) of output per employee (Wiech et al , 2019).…”

Information technology-enabled explorative learning and competitive performance in industrial service SMEs: a configurational analysis

“…Recalling that the firm's strategic capabilities have been found to shape its competitive performance (Hutton and Eldridge, 2019;Uwizeyemungu et al, 2018), three such capabilities, namely R&D, strategic human resource management (SHRM) and networking capabilities were chosen on the basis of their being identified in the literature as enabling factors of explorative learning (Human and Naudé , 2009;Khatri, 2006;Martínez-Senra et al, 2015) and as being paramount for the competitive performance of SMEs in a globalized economy (Kroon et al, 2013;Mu and Di Benedetto, 2012;Raymond and St-Pierre, 2013). Moreover, these capabilities are envisioned here as "lower-order" capabilities embedded in the "higher-order" explorative learning capability, such capability embeddedness being "created by the combination of resources across functions and hierarchical levels within the firm" (Grewal and Slotegraaf, 2007, p. 455).…”