Porter's generic strategies, discontinuous environments, and performance: a longitudinal study of changing strategies in the hospital industry.
OBJECTIVE
Changes in generic strategies in response to discontinuous environments have been relatively ignored in the management literature. This study reports an examination of the relationships between Porter's (1980) generic strategies, discontinuous environments, and performance.


METHODS
Archival data for 1984 and 1988 were collected for 172 acute care hospitals in Florida in order to test these relationships.


METHODS
To examine fully the performance impact of changes in strategy in a discontinuous environment, a longitudinal research design that identified a firm's strategy at two points in time, 1984 and 1988, was used.


RESULTS
Results indicate that firms with a proper strategy environment fit performed the highest, firms that did not change their strategy had no change in performance, and firms that changed their strategy toward a proper strategy environment showed an increase in performance.


CONCLUSIONS
Findings support the notion that hospitals with appropriate strategy-environment combinations will exhibit higher performance.
Lamont
B T
BT
Department of Management, College of Business, Florida State University, Tallahassee 32306-1042.
Marlin
D
D
Hoffman
J J
JJ
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003363:Cost Control; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005375:Financial Audit; D005431:Florida; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods*; D006754:Hospital Restructuring / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008330:Management Audit; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D011357:Product Line Management / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends