۱- Introduction

۲- Theorietical background

۳- Methodology

۴- Results

۵- Discussions and conclusions

References

Abstract

In order to succeed in today’s competitive business environment, a firm should have a clear business strategy that is supported by other organizational strategies. While prior studies argue that strategic alignment enhances firm performance, either strategic alignment including multiple factors or strategic orientation of firms has received little attention. This study, drawing on contingency theory and configuration theory, investigates the performance impact of triadic strategic alignment among business, IT, and marketing strategies while simultaneously considers strategic orientation of firms. A research model is tested through SEM and MANOVA using data collected in a questionnaire survey of 242 Yemen managers. The findings indicate that (1) triadic strategic alignment has a positive impact on firm performance and (2) there is an ideal triadic strategic alignment for prospectors and defenders. This research contributes to strategic alignment literature and managers’ understanding of how to align business, IT and marketing strategies to improve firm performance.

Introduction

For years, strategic management scholars have emphasized the importance of aligning organizational strategies to the overall business strategy (Cao, Baker, & Hoffman, 2012; Daft, Murphy, & Willmott, 2010) since such strategic alignment will lead to a more concerted and focused pursuit of organizational objectives, which in turn improves firm performance (Donaldson, 2006; Hooper, Huff, & Thirkell, 2010). While prior research has indicated that strategic alignment generally enhances firm performance, it is also “one of the most difficult challenges facing managers” (Vorhies & Morgan, 2003, p. 100) and researchers know little about how strategic alignment should be organized to improve firm performance (Cao et al., 2012; Vorhies & Morgan, 2003). Thus, this study aims to develop our understanding of strategic alignment by addressing the following two research gaps. The first research gap concerns the lack of understanding of triadic alignment among business, information technology (IT), and marketing strategies. While business strategy clarifies how a firm coordinates organizational activities to achieve its overall goals and objectives (King, 1978), marketing strategy supports business strategy by identifying threats and opportunities in the environment to best position the organization in the market place (Babatunde & Adebisi, 2012; Varadarajan, Jayachandran, & White, 2001). In other words, marketing strategy focuses on ways in which the firm can differentiate itself effectively from its competitors, capitalizing on its distinctive strengths to deliver better value to its customers within a given environment (Jain, 2000). At the same time, IT has increasingly become a significant part of most organizations (Cha, Pingry, & Thatcher, 2009; Doherty, Champion, & Wang, 2010) and is significantly influencing how business strategy (Gerow, Grover, Thatcher, & Roth, 2014) or marketing strategy is implemented (LaForge, Ingram, & Cravens, 2009; Zhu & Nakata, 2007). Expectedly, a firm’s performance is highly likely to be determined by how effectively and efficiently the firm’s business, IT, and marketing strategies are implemented to support one another (Olson, Slater, & Hult, 2005). However, prior research has focused on the performance impact of dyadic alignment between, for example, business and IT strategies predominantly (e.g. Chan, Huff, Barclay, & Copeland, 1997; Chan, Sabherwal, & Thatcher, 2006), marketing and IT strategies (e.g. Hooper et al., 2010; Trainor, Rapp, Beitelspacher, & Schillewaert, 2011) or marketing and business strategies occasionally (e.g. Johnson, Martin, & Saini, 2012; Theodosiou, Kehagias, & Katsikea, 2012). No research seems to have investigated the influence of triadic strategic alignment among business, IT, and marketing strategies on business performance. A second research gap pertains to the limited understanding of strategic alignment by considering specific strategic orientations of firms simultaneously.