title: Strategic orientations of small multihospital systems.
abstract: Strategic behaviors of organizations can be classified along two dimensions--growth orientations, or patterns of evolution over time, and action orientations, or strategic aggressiveness in undertaking a particular growth orientation. We create measures of growth and action orientations for small multihospital systems and test the validity of the growth and action orientation typologies, using data from a sample of small multihospital systems. Growth and action orientations do appear to exist independently of each other, and they are related to the ownership status of the systems. Not-for-profit and church-other systems exhibit similar strategic orientations, unlike those of Catholic and investor-owned systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Administration, Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond 23298-0203.
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Luke
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Begun
mesh_terms: D003625:Data Collection; D006273:Health Facility Merger; D007449:Investments; D008389:Marketing of Health Services; D009096:Multi-Institutional Systems / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009936:Organizational Innovation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010067:Ownership; D010934:Planning Techniques; D012494:Sampling Studies; D014481:United States