The moderating effect of business strategy on the relationship between operations strategy and firms' results

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine empirically from a contingency perspective the influence of business strategy on the relationship between operations strategy and business results. Design/methodology/approach – Analysis is carried out on a sample of 76 Spanish ceramic tile firms. Data on strategies are gathered by means of a postal survey addressed to operations managers and information on firms' results is drawn from secondary sources. Operations strategy is represented by competitive priorities and business strategy is based on Miles and Snow's typology. Relationships are modelled in regression equations including interaction terms in order to test for the existence of a moderating effect. Findings – Existence of a moderating effect of business strategy on the relationship between operations strategy and firms' results is demonstrated. Specifically, in defender firms, the cost and quality priorities influence positively, whereas priorities of delivery and flexibility have a negative effect. No influence of operations strategy on firms' results is observed in analyser or prospector firms. Research limitations/implications – Limitations of this research include the reduced number of organisations investigated and the fact that all companies belong to a single industry. Also, the fact that strategy variables are based on self‐reporting measures identified by a single respondent. Practical implications – Practitioners must bear in mind the coherence between operations strategy and business strategy. In this work, details of business and operations strategy fits are given. Originality/value – The fit between operations strategy and business strategy is studied by focusing on the moderating role of business strategy.