Barriers to Strategy Implementation and Their Links with Strategy Typologies

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of barriers to strategy implementation experienced by firms in emerging country. Specifically, it seeks to add to the existing body of knowledge on the link between patterns of barriers to implementation and strategy typologies. Survey method was used to gather information from 111 key informants of firms in chemical industry in Thailand. Nature of barriers to implementation is investigated using existing scale drawn from the literature with some adjustments. ANOVA and Post-Hoc analysis were used to test hypotheses. The analysis led to three main findings. First, firms with different Miles and Snow strategic types experienced with different barriers to implementation. Second, Analysers experienced the extent of problems more than Prospectors but less than Defenders. Third, Reactors had less effective strategy. They were exhibiting a lowest performance in implementation of strategy. The findings revealed that firms in more developed countries in the Western world experience fewer problems from implementation of strategy than those in emerging countries. It also allows management to focus on and cope with the barriers to strategy implementation that commonly occur and pose serious problems to the organization.