Miles and Snow Typology: most influential journals, articles, authors and subject areas

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to find out the most influential journals, articles, authors and the subject areas where Miles and Snow typology is used. The study identifies the opportunities for future research as well.Design/methodology/approachReview is based on 196 journal articles selected through a systematic and rigorous search process from the four databases: ProQuest, Business Source Complete, Willy and Science Direct. Total Citation, threshold citations, fractional citation and citation per year techniques are used for analyses.FindingsStrategic Management Journal (SMJ), Academy of Management Journal (AMJ) and Journal of Marketing (JOM) are the most influential Journals. The most influential and prolific articles on the subject are from Hambrick (1983), Conant et al. (1990), Doty et al. (1993), Sabherwal et al. (2001), Desarbo et al. (2005) and Fiss (2011). Management, strategic management and marketing are the most studied subject areas.Originality/valueAlthough there have been many reviews of the literature on this typology, the systematic review on Miles and Snow typology to find out the most influential journals, authors, articles and subject area has not been done before.

Miles and Snow’s strategic typology redux through the lens of ambidexterity

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to link firms’ strategic archetypes as formulated by Miles and Snow (1978) to the more recent literature on organizational ambidexterity. Examining these obvious linkages, the paper also addresses how these firms address their entrepreneurial, engineering and administrative problem domains in relationship with the firm’s strategic archetype. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 503 firms across the US. Measures previously validated were used to collect information related to the strategic archetype as well as the three problem domains. Multiple discriminant and regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. Findings Most of the hypotheses relating the entrepreneurial (exploration and exploitation), engineering (radical and incremental innovation) and administrative problem (adaptation and alignment) to the four strategic archetypes (defender, prospector, analyzer and reactor) were supported. Additionally, the authors found that the firms that had the closest alignment along the three problem domains outperformed the other firms. Originality/value Although the Miles and Snow typology has received considerable research attention, the obvious links with more contemporary research on organizational ambidexterity has been neglected. Through this integration, with more recent key strategic management concepts, this paper shows the utility and current relevance of the Miles and Snow archetypes.

The Strategic Behaviour of SMEs

This paper analyses the strategic behaviour of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and identifies the entrepreneurial, technological, and administrative problems of the Miles and Snow typology (1978). This typology is applied to a sample of SMEs in the Canary Islands (Spain) by using a multi-item questionnaire. Then, the Rasch Measurement Theory is applied to obtain the results, with the linear continuum as a key tool. By applying the Rasch Measurement, there is a coherency between the data treatment and the new interpretation of the Miles and Snow typology (1978), which lists 4 types that are close to trends than to pure types (for example, Sollosy 2013). There are differences between the administrative and the technological problems, with their technological approach being more prospector and their administrative one, which is more defender. This shows an almost absence of enterprises with purely defender or prospector behaviours. These results show that SMEs do not follow any comprehensive framework in order to develop their strategies. Managers should analyse their strategic situation and consider the alignment of the three problems.

Assessing Miles and Snow Typology through the Lens of Managerial Discretion: How National-Level Discretion Impact Firms Strategic Orientation

Studies on the implications of managerial discretion have mainly focused on the firm, executive or industry levelattributes. Little work has tackled the national-level aspect of this construct and its potential implication on firmstrategies. We seek to theoretically establish an association between the construct of managerial discretion and firmstrategic orientation from a national-level. Our theoretical analysis strongly suggests that the degree of managerialdiscretion available to executives in each country could have a strong influence on companies’ competitive strategy.We contribute to the strategic management field and the discretion literature by uncovering new national-levelimplications.

Business strategy and firm performance: a multi-industry analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the strategy-performance relationship in a multi-industry setting for joint stock firms operating in Pakistan using Miles and Snow typology. The impact of firm size and industry on performance along with strategy is also investigated. The empirical research evidence on strategy-performance relationship for Miles and Snow typology is updated as well. Design/methodology/approach – Scoring methodology is applied for identification of strategic types, including the reactor strategy. The consistency of the firms over time is also checked. Seven year archived financial data of 320 Pakistani joint stock firms from 12 industries are used for analysis. Descriptive statistics and analysis of variance is used for analysis. Findings – Hybrid strategies are practiced by firms rather than pure strategies. The distribution of strategic types is uneven. There are mixed results for performance difference among strategic types for different industries and firm size. Defending and analyzing strategies are better than the prospecting strategies. Reactors performed better in some industries as well. Originality/value – Proposed scoring methodology can be applied to identify all strategic types including reactors in the longitudinal studies. This can be replicated for other typologies or strategic group classifications. The process for identification of reactor strategy through a consistency check is a unique contribution to the literature, especially when archived financial data are used.