Title: Strategic planning and firm performance: a comparison across countries and sectors

Authors: Kalevi Kylaheiko; Kaisu Puumalainen; Helena Sjögrén; Pasi Syrjä; Katharina Fellnhofer

Addresses: School of Business, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, FI-53851 Lappeenranta, Finland ' School of Business, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, FI-53851 Lappeenranta, Finland ' School of Business, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, FI-53851 Lappeenranta, Finland ' School of Business, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, FI-53851 Lappeenranta, Finland ' Chair of Strategic Management and Organization, University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany

Abstract: The level of uncertainty and pace of change in business environments is posing challenges for firms. The developed economies have transformed from the industrial era to the knowledge and service era, while emerging economies thrive with industrial growth. This poses the question of what the key drivers of corporate success are and how far they are different from the old earnings logic. We will focus on one special value-creating resource or capability, namely strategic planning. We empirically examine the performance consequences of strategic planning to determine in what contexts it pays off particularly well. We use data from a large-scale survey of about 2,500 organisations from developed and emerging countries. The survey responses represent a variety of industries from manufacturing to services. The analysis is based on general linear models, and the findings show significant performance differences across countries, industries, and firm size - with strategic planning explaining performance much better than any contextual characteristics.

Keywords: strategic planning; firm performance; cross-country comparison; industry sectors; resource-based view; RBV; competitive advantage; value creation; firm size; performance differences.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEV.2016.078965

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, 2016 Vol.8 No.3, pp.280 - 295

Received: 30 Dec 2014
Accepted: 07 Jan 2015
Published online: 08 Sep 2016 *

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