Strategy Implementation Success: The Moderating Effects of Size and Environmental Complexity and the Mediating Effects of Involvement

Abstract

This study examines the importance of foodservice managers’ and organizational members’ involvement in the implementation of strategy. The study assesses the direct and moderating effects of managers’ perception of environmental complexity and firm size on level of involvement during strategy implementation. Findings indicate that firms operating in an environment of greater complexity bring more organizational members into the implementation process. Firm size interacted with complexity to drive higher involvement levels for small and large firms. Furthermore, foodservice firms that utilized implementation processes that involved more organizational members across the hierarchy achieved greater success in strategy implementation. Level of involvement was shown to mediate the relationship between external complexity and implementation success.

A Study on the Causes of Strategies Failing to Success

“…Kargar & Blumenthal, 1994;Dooley, et al 2000;Peng & Litteljohn, 2001; Thorpe & Morgan, 2007;Harrington & Kendall, 2006;Schaap, 2006;Qi, 2005) and there is a paucity of such studies in developed countries (Alashloo, et. al, 2005;Shah,2005;Hacker & Washington, 2004).…”

Can Design Thinking Mitigate Critical Strategy Implementation Risks?

“…What the concept of strategy implementation entails differs between scholars and the word itself implies a particular traditionalist perspective on strategy work. Harrington (2006) describes strategy implementation as the process of implementing strategies, programs, initiatives and action plans that allows a company to take advantages of the opportunities available in the market. Noble (1999) describes strategy implementation as the communication, interpretation, adaption and enactment of strategic plans and initiatives, and as a process of continuous resource allocation.…”

“…A recent study of senior executives (The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2013Unit, , 2017 argues that strategy implementation is a continuous, iterative process and not a top-down execution process of a few months duration (Jamrog et al, 2016). It is an iterative process of implementing different actions plans, policies and programs, and if it not treated as such it creates a risk to the success of the implementation (Harrington, 2006;Li et al, 2008). Strategy implementation is not just about executing a predefined set of actions, it is about executing the strategy according to the reality, responding to unknown situations, challenges and potentials that will arise.…”

The role of middle management in the execution of expansion strategies: The case of developers’ selection of hotel projects

“…Future research could, for instance, test the impact of developers' perception of uncertainty (Harrington and Kendall, 2006) and its effect on control costs in a transaction.…”