The Concept of Strategic Fit

MA-Thesis / Master von Moritz Garlichs

Introduction:

1.1, Research problem and objectives:

Matching an organization’s strategy and structure to explain firm performance is one of the fundamental insights in strategic management literature . Successful organizations achieve strategic fit and support their strategy with appropriate structures and processes, while less successful firms typically exhibit poorer fit . Hence, firms will strive for the ideal fit to reach highest performance and outperform those that do not. This strategic fit has been the focus of many studies and provided the basis for theory construction in numerous areas of research . In every case, the underlying theoretical idea is that a ‘fit’ (also referred to as match, (co-)alignment, congruence, or consistency) between or among different contingencies has a significant positive impact on firm performance .

However, especially in the past decade, firms have to cope with globalization, rapid technological change and the shortening of product life cycles, requiring them to be able to act flexibly and rapidly . Thus the question appears whether the concept of strategic fit, demanding companies to stick to a certain strategy and its respective structure , still works and enhances a firm’s performance.

Therefore the objective of this thesis is to analyze the concept of strategic fit and to examine the different research streams. To do so, a comprehensive analysis of the literature is conducted to identify and structure existing relevant research on this topic. Moreover, a thorough overview of the current status of research is delivered and a summary and outlook of the impact of strategic fit on a firm’s performance are presented.

1.2, Course of investigation:

The thesis has two main chapters. Following the introduction, the second chapter discusses the concept of strategic fit in detail. Therefore, an introduction to contingency theory is provided to better understand the term ‘strategic fit’. After this, a research overview is provided that explains the development of the concept with the help of the central studies in this field. The second chapter concludes with a recapitulating evaluation.

Chapter three examines the identified empirical research. Therefore, first the used categorization scheme is explained. Second, the studies are classified and the main results presented. The chapter concludes with a recapitulating evaluation that discusses the aggregated results of the classification.

Chapter four concludes the thesis with a summary and discussion of its findings.

Table of contents