Incremental Decision Making in Small Manufacturing Firms
研究了小型制造企业在营销和生产两个职能领域采取的增量决策行动，以理解它们如何应对竞争威胁和机遇，并识别成功与失败策略。
During the past decade, Japanese and other foreign firms have successfully developed innovative product technology and production systems; they also have gradually taken over many of the leadership positions previously held by U.S. firms. In reaction, many large and small manufacturing firms have abandoned product-innovation and market-share strategies and returned to a short-term profit mentality (Coe 1990, Prestowitz 1988). Since U.S. firms will face rapidly changing technologies and volatile markets in the 1990s, it is important to determine how small firms can remain competitive. On the one hand, small firms are generally considered more vulnerable to competitive challenges, in part because they spend more time adjusting rather than predicting and controlling the business environment (d'Amboise and Muldowney 1988). However, smaller firms have long been a major source of product innovation and generated many new jobs (Birch 1987). If these positive attributes can be preserved, small manufacturing firms may be the best chance for American industry to sustain an indigenous manufacturing capability on a par with other countries (Prestowitz 1988, Holland 1989). This article presents the results of a study that measured the kinds of actions small manufacturers take to gain a competitive advantage in their respective industries. Primarily, the study focuses on changes in two important functional areas: marketing and production. Understanding the choices small manufacturing firms make at this level should help identify successful and unsuccessful responses to competitive threats and opportunities. The study was designed to build on earlier strategic planning research in both large and small business (Stoner 1986, Sexton and Van Auken 1986, Mintzberg 1973, and Quinn 1978). The connection between incremental decisions made at the functional level of strategy and the overall company strategic planning effort in the small company has been highlighted. Our research asked the following questions: 1. What are the preferred strategic actions taken by small and medium-sized manufacturing firms in the areas of marketing and production? 2. Is there a difference between the combination of actions taken by the more successful firms and the less successful ones? 3. To what degree is the success of these actions influenced by exogenous factors, such as size of firm, degree of technological change, etc.? CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND Mintzberg's concept of the strategy-making process in smaller firms is characterized by reactive solutions to existing problems. The strategy maker moves forward in incremental (or tactical) steps, focusing first on what is familiar; then, he or she considers convenient alternatives, as well as alternatives that differ only slightly from the status quo (Mintzberg 1973). Similarly, Quinn (1978) argues that . . the processes used to arrive at the total strategy are typically fragmented, evolutionary, and largely intuitive. Porter's model of competitive advantage also views realized strategy as a set of interrelated strategically relevant activities at the functional level of the firm (Porter 1985, 33). This study, based on the concept of the adaptive organization described above, identified a set of nine operations and six marketing decision categories that were typical and covered the possible strategic options. Recent studies concerning the development and revitalization of industrial products have helped to identify relevant categories in marketing and operations (Avlonitis 1985, McKee et al. 1989). Efforts to gain a competitive advantage will generally require actions in at least one of these functional areas. The research design also included a selected set of exogenous or contingency variables that were considered to have the greatest impact on the effectiveness of strategic decisions in marketing and operations. …