Operations strategy configurations in project process firms

Purpose – Seeks to focus on operations priority patterns and operations strategy. Configurations by testing them in a specific environment which contributes to demonstrating their applicability and generalizability. Design/methodology/approach – Using data from 130 Spanish companies with project process organization, their operations strategy is analyzed as a whole, without the following of a trade‐off pattern being observed. Findings – Cost, conformer and innovation strategy types, compared with other operations strategy configurations regarding variables used to develop project management configurations, for the most part exhibit a coherent behaviour, giving support to operations strategy validation at a higher theoretical level. Research limitations/implications – The two most important limitations are the relatively small sample size used in the study and the results obtained with the organization structure variable. Similar studies in other specific production process contexts should also be undertaken. Practical implications – Results obtained contribute to demonstrating the applicability of the operations strategy framework to the study of operations management in different environments and its coherence with the specific variables that are used to characterize them. Originality/value – This study is virtually breaking new ground, prompted by recent calls for empirical research and for testing developed theories on operations management.