Generic strategic positioning and organizational configurations in private micro-clinics

Abstract

By linking concepts and ideas from the private health services (PHS) and Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) literature with Porter's generic framework, this paper aims to identify the competitive positioning at a micro-clinic level in the private health services industry and to examine the perceived role of the institutions and intellectual capital associated with each one. A Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) was used.The results show that organizational configurations are associated with proactivity when competing via differentiation. In contrast, cost leadership is linked to firms that compete with low tariffs and a defensivearchetype. Our work can serve as a basis to recommend specific competitive strategies for thehigh number of firms still following a stuck-in-the-middle positioning strategy.