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Purpose This study aims to examine the preference for earnings management (EM) strategies according to business strategies, namely, cost leadership strategies and differentiation strategies, Design/methodology/approach This study analyzed 262 samples of manufacturing and service companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the period 2019. Logistic regression analysis is used to test the company’s EM strategy preferences based on the applied business strategy. Findings The results prove that business strategy has a significant effect on EM strategy preferences. Companies that implement a cost leadership strategy tend to use an accrual form of EM rather than a real form of EM. Conversely, companies that implement a differentiation strategy tend to use a real form of EM. Research limitations/implications Theoretically, this study confirms that contingency theory can explain EM practice preferences based on business strategy. Practically, this study helps auditors and financial statement analysts in assessing the quality of financial statements, as well as the risk of financial misstatement based on the business strategy adopted by the companies. Originality/value Based on prior literature, research studies on the analysis of EM strategy preferences based on business strategy have been limited.

This study aims to contribute to the systematisation of knowledge in the field of business strategies and analyse its trends. An initial dataset of 884 articles was extracted from the WoS and Scopus databases based on keywords. This dataset was reduced to 430 articles by detailed reading and processed through bibliometric analysis and text mining. The bibliometric analysis confirmed an increasing number of articles, unbalanced contributions of individual journals, and unbalanced citation rates by articles and authors. Textmining analysis showed the dominance of Porter’s generic strategies and Miles and Snow’s typology of strategies. The results show that the theory of business strategy is not subject to trends and has not yet been significantly affected by changes in real business, thus creating opportunities for future research. This study addresses the gap in the comprehensive review of trends in business strategy development.

The Korean government implemented a 52-h workweek policy for employees’ welfare. Consequently, companies face workforce availability reduction with the same number of employees. That is, labor-dependent companies suffer from workforce shortage. To handle the workforce shortage, they increase irregular employees who are paid relatively less. However, the problem of ‘no-show’, due to the stochastic characteristics of irregular employee’s absence, happens. Therefore, this study aims to propose a staff scheduling strategy considering irregular employee absence and a new labor policy by using linear programming. By deriving a deterministic staff schedule through system parameters derived from the features and rules of an actual company in the numerical experiment, the practicality and applicability of the developed mathematical model are proven. Furthermore, through sensitivity analysis and simulation considering the stochastic characteristics of absences, various proactive cases are provided. Through the proactive cases, the influence of the change of the average percent of irregular employees’ absences on the total labor costs and staff schedules and the expected number who would not come to work could be given when assuming the application in practice. This finding can help decision-makers prepare precautious measures, such as assigning extra employees in case of an irregular employee’s absence.

BackgroundSouth African national public entities play a significant role in the economy as they assist government to achieve the public service delivery mandate. However, these entities are facing numerous problems and challenges including a misalignment between corporate (i.e. government department) and business strategies of business units. The impact these problems and challenges have on organisational performance and hence service delivery, and why the misalignment exists are not known. Hence, this study was intended to fill this gap.AimThis study was intended to analyse the extent of misalignment or alignment between corporate- and business-level strategies and the resulting impact on organisational performance in schedule 3 public entities in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa (SA).SettingThe public sector entities at the local, provincial and/or national level, in terms of culture, legal framework, structure, linkages and, especially, performance as it relates to the topic, political dynamics.MethodThe survey design and the multicase study design with mixed methods (i.e. qualitative and quantitative methods) were applied. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 38 randomly selected executives of public entities and provincial government, and in-depth interviewing was used to collect qualitative data. Multiple regression and thematic analysis were used to analyse the data.ResultsIt was found that a misalignment between the corporate- and business-level strategies in SA public entities caused by, amongst others, lack of capacity and ineffective communication, negatively affects the strategy implementation, hence causing service delivery problems.ConclusionThe misalignment between the corporate- and business-level strategies affects the strategy implementation, hence affecting the service delivery negatively. This gap should be minimised by addressing the problems and challenges faced by the public entities such as lack of human resources capacity and ineffective communication in order to enhance organisational performance.

Abstract This study examines the effect of business-level strategy on performance. Past literature indicates that few studies were done to examine the effect of business-level strategy in the hotel industry. Specifically, numerous previous researches focused on banking and manufacturing industries in developed countries. For that reason, to explore our understanding in this area, the present study was conducted in the Nigerian hotel industry. The data were collected using a survey designed from 83 owners/managers of hotels in Kano, Northwest of Nigeria, using appropriate sampling techniques. The data were analysed with 58 valid responses using SPSS and partial least square (PLS) techniques. The findings indicate a surprising result that cost leadership is not statistically significant on performance. Moreover, the differentiation strategy is significantly related to hotels’ performance. Based on these findings, theoretical and practical implications and future research suggestions were discussed.

This paper deals with the explicit design of strategy formulations to make the best strategic choices from a conventional matrix form of representing strategic choices. The explicit strategy formulation is an analytical model that is targeted to provide a mathematical strategy framework to find the best moment for strategy shifting to prepare rapid market changes. This theoretical model could be adapted into practically any strategic decision making situation when a strategic formulation is described as a matrix form with quantitative measured decision parameters. Analytically tractable results are obtained by using the fluctuation theory and these results are able to predict the best moments for changing strategies in a matrix form. This research can help strategy decision makers who want to find the optimal moments of shifting present strategies.

This research note suggests metric conjoint analysis (Louviere, 1988) as a tool for evaluating the decision policies employed by top managers in making strategic decisions. As an example of the technique, a descriptive field study is presented wherein the decision rules for stategy-structure-environment alignment used by the chief executives of 33 autonomous, nondiversified manufacturing firms are examined. Implications for future strategy research on managerial cognitions are discussed.

Purpose There is considerable literature on the firm’s market servicing mode (MSM) when it enters the foreign country. However, scant research has been conducted to examine how business-level strategies (BLSs) affect internationalised firms to choose a multiple rather than single post-entry MSM. In this research, we test the effect of three BLSs on firms’ selection of multiple MSMs. Design/methodology/approach Survey responses of 165 internationalised Greek small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were collected capturing the types of BLSs they used during 2008-2010 and their number of MSMs in a particular foreign country in 2011. The data were analysed using logistic regression. Findings The findings suggest that firms that implement collaborative and differentiation strategies are more likely to use multiple rather than single MSMs. Firms that implement penetration pricing strategies are more likely to use single MSMs, although this effect is marginally significant. Overall, the validity of the strategic choice model regarding the choice of multiple MSMs is confirmed. Originality/value Despite its importance, the effect of BLSs influencing MSMs has not seemingly been investigated, especially in the context of internationalised SMEs as opposed to large multinational enterprises; and, for post-entry as opposed to initial modes.. The findings underline the BLS significance on internationalised SME adoption of multiple vs. single MSMs in the host country.

This paper reports the results of a research study aimed at conceptualizing and developing valid measurements of key dimensions of a strategy construct—termed Strategic Orientation of Business Enterprises. This construct is first defined by addressing four theoretical questions of scope; hierarchical level; domain; and intentions versus realizations, and then conceptualized in terms of six dimensions. Subsequently, operational indicators are developed for the six dimensions in terms of managerial perceptions across 200 business units in a field study. An evaluation of the measurement properties within an analysis of covariance structures framework indicated that the operational measures developed here largely satisfy the criteria for unidimensionality, convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. Implications and lines of extensions are outlined.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of antecedent factors on business level strategies of Nigerian agro-based firms. The study made use of survey method over one hundred and ninety-three respondents. Pearson's correlation and regression analysis were used to analyze the data obtained. The existing relationship stemming from the results revealed that top management factor, organizational system, and departmental connectivity are important antecedent factors that determine the success or otherwise of strategic orientation dimensions. The study recommends that the calibre of the top management personnel and the internal cohesion between departments should be considered a critical variable in the adoption of particular orientation.