The Influence of Performance, Environment and Size on the Identifiability of Firm Strategy

SUMMARY This paper empirically examines the broadly held assumption that higher performing firms pursue identifiable generic and/or industry‐specific strategies, as opposed to pursuing an unidentifiable strategy. Here, in a sample of 200 banks, the identifiability of strategy was linked to two dimensions of the environment (interdependence/complexity and munificence) and bank size. The linkage between identifiability and performance was more complex. The discussion emphasizes the potential importance of institutionalization, and implementation in the performance‐strategy identifiability link.