Strategy implementation – external environment alignment

Abstract

For any business, as to grow and prosper, managers must be able to anticipate, recognize and deal with change in the internal and external environment. This paper examines the relationship between the external environment and strategy implementation process, taking into account two perspectives of analysis. The first one defines the impact of environmental characteristics on the implementation process. Respondents were asked to evaluate the level of environment uncertainty in everyday business through the level of change complexity and turbulence. The second one defines the enterprise response and proactiveness in external data collecting, processing and identification of opportunities. The paper is based on empirical research, conducted in large Croatian enterprises. The sample includes 78 enterprises and includes respondents from different hierarchical levels and business functions. Enterprises do not associate the lack of implementation success to the context uncertainty. Respondents, regardless of their position within the organization, emphasize they have a lack of competencies managing rapidly evolving situations. Enterprises, with a higher level of proactiveness in researching context characteristics, demonstrate a greater level of preparation in opportunities exploitation. In addition, private enterprises, mainly focused on international market, perceive a higher level of context uncertainty.

Keywords

• strategy implementation process
• perceived context uncertainty
• enterprise proactiveness
• Croatian large enterprises.