Identifying pure and favorable strategies is one of the main concerns of managers and leaders in organizations and this managerial issue has become an important field for research. Many scholars in strategic management field have tried to provide multiple approaches or styles for strategy formation in the organizations. An effective way to identify strategy formation approach is to investigate how successful organizations are directed and lead. In this way, the reliable methods of strategy formation can be achieved by investigation of the organizations.
This paper presents the result of a wide study on strategy formation approaches in Iranian organizations. Firstly, using taxonomical statistic method, five successful companies among 29 companies from various industries were selected as a result of their first ranking in their industrial groups during 2011-2013. To do this, six performance indices including asset returns, profit margin, human productivity, market share and sale rate, and profit growth rate were employed. Through the identification of the companies, their revolution trends were examined and the most important strategies leading to their success were determined. Finally, using a questionnaire and a sample of 150 top and middle managers of the surveyed organizations, their strategy formation approaches were identified.
Entrepreneurial approach in strategy formation was more effective than formal approach or strategic planning, strategic venturing approach, and strategic learning approach. In some organizations, a combination of two approaches, namely strategic planning approach and entrepreneurial approach were utilized to formulate their strategies. Hence, it is obvious that among investigated companies, this is entrepreneurial approach that can be considered as reliable to formulate successful strategies.
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