Realizing Strategy through Measurement

It is widely accepted that firms should have manufacturing strategies consistent with their overall business strategies, but while much has been written about the content of these strategies, little has been said about how they should be developed and realized. Reports on research which set out to investigate the extent to which UK firms seek to influence the realization of their manufacturing strategies through their performance measurement systems. Over 800 small and medium‐sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) in the UK were surveyed in late 1992. Analysis of the data suggests that while firms which compete on quality or time place most emphasis on performance measures which match their strategies, those which compete on price do not.