Managing the fit between the views of competitive strategy and the strategic role of service operations

► Profiling assesses the perceived strategic fit between competitive and operations’ strategies. ► A diverse range of relationships are revealed. ► These are displayed on a framework to show the current degree of internal strategic fit of a business. ► The framework facilitates the development of a plan for the future management of internal fit. ► The profiles expose weaknesses in the current internal fit of a business and areas for improvement. Previous research has verified the positive impact that internal strategic fit can have on business performance. However, many service organizations experience the difficulty of managing the fit between competitive and operations’ strategies. Inherent within the problem has been insufficient understanding of the substantive relationships between the dimensions of competitive and operations’ strategies. The purpose of this service-based business research was to investigate the characteristics of the competitive and operations’ strategies of a business in order to assess the degree of fit. Strategic profiling was used as the method to investigate the characteristics of the different relationships between competitive and operations’ strategies in 21 service businesses. The research results in the identification of a diverse range of organizational relationships developed by the adoption of different approaches to competitive strategy formulation and their consequences upon the strategic role of operations. The findings should be of particular interest to both strategic and operations managers as they detail a means of assessing the perceived level of strategic fit between the current competitive and operations’ strategies of a business. Such an assessment can facilitate the planning of interventions for its future improvement.