Operations strategy and business strategy alignment model (case of Iranian industries)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper here is to present an operational model that establishes the necessary relationship between business strategy and operations strategy. Accordingly, managers are enabled to define strategic business elements in the operations unit and align it with the business strategies. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 160 companies using a combination of structured interviews and closed questionnaire. In developing the alignment model, descriptive‐survey and correlation methods were used. For selecting the codes and types of alignments, a heuristic data analysis method was developed and applied. Findings – This paper concludes that alignment is significantly different in successful and unsuccessful companies. Considering their performance, 25 alignment types have been identified out of which seven types have been found appropriate for the case. Practical implications – The recommended model here is easy to use and helps managers to improve the performance of their companies by aligning their operation strategy with business strategy. Originality/value – This paper presents a model that includes the content and process of operations strategy, using top‐down and resource‐based approaches. This model associates alignment with organizations performance, a subject that has been considered as one of the major and challenging issues in the strategic management efforts. Overall, a new and innovative model has been proposed here for building a vertical alignment between the strategies of the firm. The proposed alignment comes in two different levels.