AN EMPIRICAL STUDY AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF MANUFACTURING VARIABLES WHICH INFLUENCE OVERALL STRATEGIC PERFORMANCE

This study examines the relationship between the manufacturing strategies and the strategic performance of industrial firms in general. It was undertaken to draw the attention of both practitioners and researchers to the strategic potential of the manufacturing function, thereby encouraging the integration of this function into the overall corporate strategy formulation process and into future analytical research.;To achieve these objectives, we selected and studied 32 industrial firms from 3 major Saudi industries (transportation equipment, appliances, and electrical equipment industries). Data were collected from each of those firms in three basic strategic-performance/manufacturing-management areas.;The findings of the study suggest that those industrial firms whose manufacturing activities were controlled strategically were likely to outperform (strategically) those firms whose manufacturing activities were relatively isolated from their corporate strategies. The study also identified industry-specific manufacturing variables that influenced the strategic performance of the observed industrial firms.;The three major objectives of the study were: (1) to analyze and classify industrial firms into two or more groups (clusters) on the basis of their manufacturing strategy levels, (2) to relate the differences in the manufacturing strategy levels to strategic performance variables in each industry, and (3) to identify significant manufacturing variables that may influence the strategic performance on industrial firms within each industry.