The Miles and Snow Business Strategy Typology and the Adoption of Management Accounting Practices

Changes in the business environment requires that a company adopts a more adaptive strategy. A business strategy is not just about planning, but it needs to be supported with meaningful information. Management accounting complements a business strategy by providing crucial information, not just limited to cost efficiency, but customer satisfaction and quality management. However, the adoption of management accounting practices (MAPs) is believed to be influenced by strategy. Using the Miles and Snow (1978) business strategy typology model, this study examined the influence of business strategy on the adoption of MAPs, focusing on how the different types of business strategies used in organizations may influence the adoption of MAPs. Data was collected from manufacturing companies in Malaysia. The result showed that most Malaysian manufacturing companies utilized three major classifications of strategies, i.e., defender, prospector, analyzer, and only a few were classified as reactors. The result showed that the adoption level of both traditional and advanced MAPs is also high. Findings from this study indicated an influence of the defender and analyzer types towards adopting traditional MAPs, whereas the prospector type had influenced the adoption of advanced MAPs. Keywords: management accounting practices, business strategy, defender, prospector, analyzer, reactor

Business strategy, intellectual capital, firm performance, and bankruptcy risk: evidence from Oman's non-financial sector companies

PurposeThis research examines the influence of business strategy and intellectual capital on firm performance and bankruptcy risk of Oman's non-financial sector companies.Design/methodology/approachThe data comprises 380 firm-year observations collected from 2015 to 2019 for the non-financial sector companies listed on the Muscat Securities Market. This study measures business strategy using the Miles and Snow typologies and Porter's strategies as alternative measures. The study uses the Granger-causality test to measure the bi-directional causality between independent and dependent variables. The authors use alternative measurements of business strategy and 2SLS/IV estimation to validate the OLS results.FindingsAccording to the Miles and Snow typologies, most of Oman's non-financial firms were analyzers. The empirical results show a negative relationship between business strategy and return on equity (ROE), suggesting defender-type strategy leads to an increase in firm performance. The OLS results show no influence of A-VAIC on firm performance and Altman-Z score. The structural capital efficiency is positively associated with ROA, and Altman Z score consistent with the hypothesized relationship. The Granger causality test shows no inference of causality between any independent and dependent variables except for Z score and CEE.Research limitations/implicationsThe business strategy results from the firm performance and bankruptcy risk models are valuable to the researchers from an emerging market and non-financial companies' perspective. Oman's diversification strategy of its economic activities through non-financial sector companies receives an impetus through the findings of this study. As this study is limited to Oman's non-financial sector companies, future research on business strategy impact can be extended to the financial sector, other GCC, and emerging countries.Originality/valueThe findings of this study contribute to the sparse literature on business strategy in an emerging market like Oman. This study enriches the knowledge of business strategy typologies proposed by Miles and Snow, and Porter. It also contributes to the extant literature on firm performance and bankruptcy risk.

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.

Strategic Orientation and Effects of E-Administration: Findings from the Miles and Snow Framework

Much has been written about the strategic orientation of public administration organizations (prospecting, defending, reacting, and analyzing) and their consequences for organizational effects, but little is dedicated to e-administration. Is the provision of services using IT affecting the adoption of strategic orientation and its effects? The paper is dealing with e-administration issues, specifically in terms of the impact of the Miles and Snow strategic orientation on e-administration effects. To measure e-administration effects, the author’s personal tool using the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) criterion has been proposed. The data collection was conducted using the Computer-Assisted Web Interview (CAWI) method, in the period from November 2017 to January 2018. Two hundred and twenty-six Polish organizations took part in the study. The objective of this study, i.e., assessing the impact of strategic orientation and e-administration effects, was achieved by using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method. It is indicated that the Defender orientation is positively associated with the effects of e-administration.

Strategic Orientation of Mexican Family-owned Businesses and Its Influence on Corporate Social Responsibility Practices

The aim of this article was to determine whether the strategic orientation of family-owned businesses influences Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices. For this purpose, a questionnaire was administered to a sample of 245 family-owned businesses in the southern part of the southeastern Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Variables attributed to CSR measurements were environment, society, employees, and customers, as well as business-level strategies of prospector, analyzer, defender, and reactor as defined by Miles and Snow. Results showed that family-owned businesses with a strategic orientation as prospector and analyzer have higher development levels of CSR practices, reactor businesses demonstrated lower development levels of CSR practices. Prospector and analyzer businesses tend to be product developers and innovators in their respective markets.

Survival of Traditional Retailers: An Islamic Business Perspective

This study aimed to explain the reality of survival mechanisms and adaptive strategies by traditional retailers in Surabaya in facing the existence of massive modern retail stores. This study used qualitative research with a phenomenological approach. The data collection method used observation and interview techniques. Data analyzed with Clark and Scott's survival mechanism theory and the adaptive strategy by Miles and Snow. The result of this research was in the aspect of defender strategy, traditional retailers did various strategies when prices went up, and instead of increased the prices they choosed to reduce the profits. The stores equipped with people daily needs to retain customers. Even though the stock was small, the items sold were complete. It was important to promote family relations with buyers. A striking aspect is the close family relation that was so different from modern retail stores. In the aspect of reactor strategy, the owners responded to the situation without having a long-term strategy design. Their store’s responses were reactive and short-term oriented in the form of selling goods by following the tastes of buyers and current trends. Meanwhile, in carrying out business performance in connection with the survival mechanism, Surabaya traditional retailers met the business assessment of the Islamic perspective namely on the aspects of material, mental, spiritual, and fraternal.

An Analysis of Theory of Organisational Typologies and their Application in Higher Education Institutional Settings

This research examined the different theories of organisational typologies and their conceptualised application to higher education institutions. The paper is divided into two main parts. The first part is the literature review which discusses each of the organisational typologies and their basic characteristics. Specific examples are also given for each of organisational typology alongside the proponent of each type. Four different types of typologies presented by Miles and Snow [1], Burns and Stalker [2], Morgan [3] and Hoy and Miskel [4] are discussed in the review section. The second part practically synthesised how each of the organisational typologies could apply to the higher educational institutions. A mind map was created to prove how a specifically higher institution may be classified as a ‘defender’ type of organisation.