An empirical analysis of construction organisations’ competitive strategies and performance
Built Environment Project and Asset Management
ISSN: 2044-124X
Article publication date: 7 September 2015
Abstract
Purpose
The essence of strategy formulation is to assist an organisation obtain a strategic fit with its environment and help enhance organisational continuous improvement in achieving performance excellence. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the type of competitive strategies used by construction organisations in attaining their strategic goals in South Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs an inductive research approach using a well-structured questionnaire to elicit information from large construction organisations based in South Africa.
Findings
The research identifies five strategic attributes that could assist organisations to grow their businesses and enhance their returns. It reveals that all Porters’ generic competitive strategies are significantly related to organisational financial performance measures except focus strategy. The research found that three generic competitive strategies are positively related to non-financial performance and that differentiation and cost-leadership strategies are capable of assisting organisations’ achieve their financial performance goals.
Practical implications
The study results will be of immense benefit to chief executive officers as well as managers of construction organisations in growing their businesses and enhancing their corporate performance.
Originality/value
The paper contributes both theoretically and empirically to the current discussion and findings on competitive strategy and its relationship with organisational performance. The results presented in the paper have important implications for the implementation of competitive strategies in construction companies and future studies in the area of strategic management.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The financial assistance of the National Research Foundation (NRF) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. However, opinions expressed or conclusions arrived at, are those of the authors and are not necessarily attributable to the NRF.
Citation
Oyewobi, L.O., Windapo, A.O. and James, R.O.B. (2015), "An empirical analysis of construction organisations’ competitive strategies and performance", Built Environment Project and Asset Management, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 417-431. https://doi.org/10.1108/BEPAM-10-2013-0045
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited