| dc.description.abstract | Despite strategic management advocating for the use of strategic control practices to improve the
implementation of strategic plans and competitive position, establishing the strategic control-performance
relationship has been problematic, suggesting failure by researchers to consider contingent variables. This
study used data, collected during the period November 2008 to May 2009 from 109 senior managers in a
census survey of 45 firms in the sugar value-chain in western Kenya, to examine the moderating effect of
strategic orientation on the relationship between belief control and competitive position. Descriptive statistics,
bi-variate regression analysis and moderated regression analysis were used to analyze data. The findings
revealed moderate prevalence of Interactive control mean 2.86, std dev 0.83. The most prevalent strategic
orientation was the reactor (60%), followed by defender (24%); prospectors (9%) and analyzers (7%). All the
four levers were positively and significantly related to competitive position (interactive β = 0.393, p < 0.01).
The results of this study suggest that urgent measures are required by the firms in the study to design
interractive control systems to cope with the changing business environment. The study contributes to
validation and upgrade of the existing belief control theory. For managers, the study sheds light on the design
and use of belief controls and also for public sector managers in guiding the strategic change. It is
recommended that future studies focus on the specific firms in sugar value chain and adopt longitudinal casestudy
designs to establish causal relationships among variables. | en_US |
