The impact of product positioning strategy, manufacturing strategy and their co-alignment on firm's performance.

摘要

Both product positioning and manufacturing strategies are business level strategies developed by the marketing and operations management departments of firms. Influenced by resource-based and market-based views, both positioning and manufacturing strategies have dimensions which at times are identical, such as quality, cost/price, and innovation. Both strategies are postulated to have a significant impact on organizational performance.The study was virtually divided into three parts. First, the influence of certain factors on the development of positioning strategies and, in turn, the impact of positioning strategies on a firm's performance was examined. Second, a number of factors impacting development of manufacturing strategies were investigated, along with relationship of manufacturing strategy with organizational performance. Third, the co-alignment of positioning and manufacturing strategy was determined using profile deviation technique. The adherence to ideal profile is taken as co-alignment for this study.It was found that the development of positioning strategy is influenced more by customer orientation than competitor orientation. Marketing capability plays an important role in the development of positioning strategy. Focus on brand and company image leads to higher customer satisfaction, more loyalty and better financial performance.The final evidence regarding preference of resource orientation over market orientation is inconclusive in this study as both of them influence only one manufacturing strategy each. Our study confirms the conventional wisdom that each manufacturing strategy is backed by the corresponding manufacturing capability. However, it reinforces the notion that certain manufacturing capabilities, such as delivery, are integral to the operations and survival of the firm. Cost, delivery and flexibility capabilities lead to improved financial performance, while quality impacts customer satisfaction and loyalty.The objective of this study is to understand how manufacturing firms in Canada develop these strategies and what is their impact on bottom line i.e., what are the factors which influence the development of these strategies how these strategies individually impact firm's performance and what is the impact of co-alignment of two strategies on a firm's performance. The findings of the empirical study are based on the data collected from 194 manufacturing firms in Canada.This is the first study which empirically demonstrates that co-alignment of manufacturing and marketing can be examined by operationalizing it as the lack of correspondence between the profile of the top performing strategic configuration and rest of the strategic configurations.