Blind pursuit of strategic goals : an examination of middle managers' strategic orientations in Japanese firms

Abstract

This paper reports the symptoms of strategic problems through examining the current status of business strategies in Japanese firms. Based on data collected through a questionnaire survey in 2006 from 128 business units in 16 Japanese firms, this paper examines the relationships between business strategies pursued by middle managers and their performance. The empirical results suggest that middle managers blindly pursue less effective business strategies (e.g., pursuit of scale economies, market share, and excessive product differentiation) even in the face of environmental change - from the market growth stage to the maturity stage in the late 1990s and thereafter. Finally, this paper proposes some managerial implications for their recovery from dysfunction of business strategy.