Submitted by Odilio Hilario Moreira Júnior (odilio@espm.br) on 2016-11-29T13:49:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcello Monteiro Pereira.pdf: 1400781 bytes, checksum: c0b5e321cfc6aae2c1adf1988547abeb (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Debora Cristina Bonfim Aquarone (deborabonfim@espm.br) on 2016-11-29T13:52:39Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcello Monteiro Pereira.pdf: 1400781 bytes, checksum: c0b5e321cfc6aae2c1adf1988547abeb (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Debora Cristina Bonfim Aquarone (deborabonfim@espm.br) on 2016-11-29T13:53:06Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcello Monteiro Pereira.pdf: 1400781 bytes, checksum: c0b5e321cfc6aae2c1adf1988547abeb (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-29T13:53:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcello Monteiro Pereira.pdf: 1400781 bytes, checksum: c0b5e321cfc6aae2c1adf1988547abeb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-20 / The purpose of this work is to measure the performance of subsidiaries of Corporate Social Responsability (CSR) and compare the results according to various CSR strategies adopted (global or local). To achieve the proposed goals and respond to the research problem, we used a quantitative research methodology, specifically a survey of executives of multinational companies in the sector. From the universe of 450 companies, suppliers of the automotive industry, 78 questionnaires were obtained. Due to the existence of multiple variables, we used the structural equation model to analyze the data. The results show that a global CSR strategy has positive influences on the performance of CSR, since the adoption of a local strategy shows no significant results due to lack of commitment to engagement with stakeholders. / objetivo da dissertação é mensurar a performance de responsabilidade social empresarial (RSE) das subsidiárias e comparar os resultados de acordo com as diferentes estratégias de RSE adotadas (global ou local). Para atingir os objetivos propostos e responder ao problema de pesquisa, foi utilizada uma metodologia de pesquisa quantitativa, mais especificamente uma survey com os executivos das empresas multinacionais do setor automobilístico. A partir do universo de 450 empresas, fornecedoras da indústria automobilística, foram obtidos 78 questionários respondidos. Devido à existência de múltiplas variáveis foi utilizado o modelo de equações estruturais para analisar os dados. Os resultados mostram que uma estratégia de RSE globalizada apresenta influências positivas na performance de RSE, já a adoção de uma estratégia local não apresenta resultados significativos devido a falta de comprometimento com o engajamento com os stakeholders.

The purpose of this study was to determine which specific resources contribute to the strategy-to-performance gap of small businesses trading in the Pietermaritzburg metropolitan area, from a resource-based perspective of strategic management. The research was prompted by a study conducted by Marakon Associates, the purpose of which was to investigate how successfully companies translate their strategies into performance and what steps they take to close the resulting strategy-to-performance gaps. The main reasons advanced for poor strategy-to-performance results are inadequate or unavailable resources. The research design in the study is quantitative and descriptive in nature. The data was collected from a structured questionnaire comprising of 18 questions emailed to the owners using LimeSurvey. The findings of the survey show that the businesses surveyed lack resources, which leads directly to strategy-to-performance gaps. The most important resources they lack are financial and human resources. / Business Management / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

"Can you define 'plan' as 'a loose sequence of manifestly inadequate observations and conjectures, held together by panic, indecision, and ignorance'? If so, it was a very good plan." Jonathan Stroud, The Ring of Solomon Jonathan Stroud knew that a plan cannot stand alone and needs more. Every business needs a strategy. Academics in the field of strategic management have bewailed the field's disparate, ambiguous nature. The question arises: how can these concerns be compliant with the substantial success that strategic management experienced in the past? The weaknesses of strategic management seem to be its strengths. In their study, Nag, Hambrick and Chen (2007) suggest that strategic management acts as an intellectual dealer entity, which thrives by enabling the simultaneous pursuit of multiple research orientations by a variety of disciplinary and philosophical regimes. The Bain and Company Management Tools and Trends, (Rigby & Bilodeau 2011) indicated the importance of management tools and how these tools can enhance an organisation's ability to strategise for the future. Mankins and Steele (2005) identified factors resulting in a strategy-to-performance gap and made recommendations on how an organisation can minimise such gaps. Tait and Nienaber (2010) came to the conclusion that the use of management tools could reduce challenges of formulation, implementation and evaluation resulting in closing or minimising the strategy-to-performance gap. In view of the findings of these three above-mentioned studies, this study of SAEO aimed to explore (identify, describe and understand) what factors top, middle and frontline managers perceived to hinder strategy implementation at SAEO during the 2009/10-2010/11 financial years, resulting in a strategy-to-performance gap and to determine how these factors affect the organisation. This study was conducted as a qualitative case study that used empirical evidence from real people in a real-life organisation. Data was collected from a South African electronics organisation (henceforth referred to as SAEO) involving 14 managers at three different hierarchical levels (top, middle and frontline managers). They were required to answer semi-structured questions on to how these strategy-formulation-implementation-evaluation phases affect their working environment. The interviews were conducted at the premises of the organisation and permission was sought from the CEO who granted permission for the researcher to request the managers to participate. Information was used from previous authors and a replication study was conducted using the Mankins and Steele (2005) and Tait and Nienaber (2010) studies. The purpose of this study was to identify, describe and understand "what factors, if any, hinder strategy implementation" (Ehlers & Lazenby, 2004; Mankins & Steele, 2005; Tait & Nienaber, 2010). Ehlers and Lazenby (2004:117) and Mankins and Steele (2005:66) have indicated that strategy implementation is the most difficult part of the strategic management process. In the Mankins and Steele (2005) and Tait and Nienaber (2010) studies, although the order differed, the most prevalent performance factors contributing to the strategy-to-performance gap were identified as a lack of focus/conflicting priorities and no resources, inadequate skills and capabilities, unclear accountabilities for execution, insufficient rewards and consequences and poorly communicated strategies. The results of this SAEO study confirmed that ineffective communication, followed by inadequate monitoring; insufficient leadership and no approved strategy were the main reasons for the strategy-to-performance gap. It seemed as if SAEO had a bigger challenge in communicating its strategy to employees than was the case in the Mankins and Steele (2005) and the Tait and Nienaber (2010) studies. Although the biggest challenge at the four South African Life Insurers (Tait & Nienaber, 2010) was inadequate or unavailable resources, the challenge at SAEO was ineffective communication and it was evident that it should be addressed to close the strategy-to-performance gap. Both challenges are part of the strategy implementation phase although communication could be related to formulation, implementation and evaluation of strategy. Although the results (ranking of factors indicated to contribute to the strategy-to-performance phenomenon) of this study did not entirely concur with the studies of Mankins and Steele (2005) and Tait and Nienaber (2010), the important fact remains that without a formulated strategy on how to ensure survival and growth of an organisation, challenges such as ineffective communication and/or inadequate or unavailable resources which were found in the three studies (Mankins & Steele, 2005; Tait & Nienaber, 2010; and the SAEO study) will have a negative effect on an organisation's future growth and prosperity. It became evident from this (SAEO) study that every member of an organisation will be affected should a strategy-to-performance gap exist. Therefore it is crucial that each organisation timeously identify possible factors that can result in a strategy-to-performance gap and determine what can be done to close or narrow those performance gaps. Lear (2012) contends that even if an organisation has the most outstanding strategy, the strategy will mean nothing if it is not understood at all levels within the organisation. That includes all processes to be aligned to achieve the organisation's objectives. / Business Management / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

台灣金融機構得以至中國大陸地區設置分支機構的法源主要來自於立法院在於2006年11月時修正准許台灣銀行業赴中國大陸地區設立分行。本研究針對39家台灣銀行業在中國大陸營業據點之經營策略與績效進行分析，並採採多元迴歸模型檢定其經營策略與績效之關係。 根據本文實證後的主要研究結果如下： 一、無論是以資產報酬率 (ROA) 或是股東權益報酬率 (ROE) 等兩項獲利指標所檢定的結果，均未有足夠的證據顯示台灣銀行業在中國大陸地區積極設置分行等據點的經營策略或方向是可行的。 二、由股東權益報酬率 (ROE) 分析的結果，支持台灣銀行業若採行提早投入中國大陸地區設置實體據點的發展策略，對於其股東權益報酬率 (ROE) 會呈現顯著的正向關係。 三、無論是以資產報酬率 (ROA) 或是股東權益報酬率 (ROE) 來做為被解釋變數，結果皆無法支持台灣銀行業在中國大陸地區設置分行等實體據點的數量規模大小與銀行的資產報酬率 (股東權益報酬率) 有關。 / Because of the Legislature amended the Act in November 2006, Taiwan’s Banking had been permitted and set up branches in mainland China since 2006. This paper analyzed the business strategy and performance of 39 Taiwanese banks in mainland China. The multiple regression models were adopted and we test the relationship between their business strategy and performance. The main results of this paper were as follows: First, whether the rate of return on assets (ROA) or return on equity (ROE) profitability indicators, there is no sufficient evidence that the Taiwan’s banks actively set in mainland China Branches and other positions of the business strategy or direction is feasible according to the other two test result. Second, as a result of the ROE analysis, it is significant to support the Taiwan’s banking industry to adopt the development strategy of setting up an entity base in mainland China, which has a significant positive effect on the ROE. Third, whether the return on assets (ROA) or the return on equity (ROE) as an explanatory variable, the results are unable to support that the the scale of Taiwan’s banking in mainland China have a relation with the ROE or ROA.

<p>Students perceive physics as a difficult teaching subject and have<br />prejudices&nbsp; about&nbsp; this&nbsp; subject&nbsp; before&nbsp; they&nbsp; get&nbsp; acquainted&nbsp; with&nbsp; its<br />content as a part of teaching physics. Poor students&rsquo; performance<br />in&nbsp; physics&nbsp; indicate&nbsp; the&nbsp; need&nbsp; to&nbsp; use&nbsp; appropriate&nbsp; strategies&nbsp; in&nbsp; the<br />teaching&nbsp; process&nbsp; that&nbsp; can&nbsp; help&nbsp; students&nbsp; in&nbsp; mastering&nbsp; physics<br />contents.&nbsp; Since&nbsp; there&nbsp; is&nbsp; a&nbsp; correlation&nbsp; between&nbsp; students&rsquo;<br />performance and metacognition, it is preferably to apply strategies<br />that at the same time encourage the development of metacognition.<br />In this paper a modified Know-Want-Learn strategy is proposed,<br />which&nbsp; can&nbsp; be&nbsp; used&nbsp; in&nbsp; teaching&nbsp; with&nbsp; the&nbsp; aim&nbsp; of&nbsp; encouraging<br />research and practical work. Within the modified strategy, students<br />fill&nbsp; in&nbsp; four&nbsp; columns:&nbsp; What&nbsp; I&nbsp; Think&nbsp; and&nbsp; what&nbsp; I&nbsp; know;&nbsp; What<br />Questions I have; How can I find out; and What I Learned.<br />The aim of the conducted research was to examine the impact of<br />the modified Know-Want-Learn strategy on students&rsquo; performance<br />and&nbsp; metacognition&nbsp; in&nbsp; primary&nbsp; school&nbsp; physics&nbsp; teaching.<br />Pedagogical&nbsp; experiment&nbsp; with&nbsp; parallel&nbsp; groups&nbsp; (experimental&nbsp; andcontrol) was carried out; 141 students (5 classes) of the sixth grade<br />(aged&nbsp; 11-12&nbsp; years)&nbsp; participated.&nbsp; Students&#39;&nbsp; performance&nbsp; was<br />assessed with the use of pre-test and post-test that were created for<br />the purpose of research, while questionnaire on metacognition was<br />used for evaluation of students&#39; metacognition. Statistical analysis<br />of&nbsp; the&nbsp; obtained&nbsp; data&nbsp; showed&nbsp; that&nbsp; the&nbsp; implementation&nbsp; of&nbsp; the<br />modified&nbsp; Know-Want-Learn&nbsp; strategy,&nbsp; in&nbsp; sixth&nbsp; grade&nbsp; primary<br />school&nbsp; physics&nbsp; teaching,&nbsp; has&nbsp; positive&nbsp; impact&nbsp; on&nbsp; students&#39;<br />performance&nbsp; and&nbsp; metacognition.&nbsp; Besides,&nbsp; it&nbsp; has&nbsp; been&nbsp; shown&nbsp; that<br />performance&nbsp; is&nbsp; not&nbsp; dependant,&nbsp; while&nbsp; metacognition&nbsp; is&nbsp; dependant<br />on students&#39; gender. On the basis of the obtained data, it was found<br />that&nbsp; there&nbsp; is&nbsp; statistically&nbsp; significant&nbsp; weak&nbsp; correlation&nbsp; between<br />students&#39;&nbsp; performance&nbsp; and&nbsp; metacognition.&nbsp; The&nbsp; research&nbsp; results<br />suggest&nbsp; that&nbsp; proposed&nbsp; strategy&nbsp; should&nbsp; be&nbsp; used&nbsp; in&nbsp; primary&nbsp; school<br />physics teaching.</p> / <p>Učenici&nbsp; doživljavaju&nbsp; fiziku&nbsp; kao&nbsp; težak&nbsp; nastavni&nbsp; predmet&nbsp; i&nbsp; imaju predrasude o fizici kao nauci i pre nego &scaron;to se upoznaju sa njenim sadržajem&nbsp; u&nbsp; okviru&nbsp; nastave&nbsp; fizike.&nbsp; Slaba&nbsp; postignuća&nbsp; učenika&nbsp; iz fizike ukazuju na potrebu da se u nastavi primenjuju odgovarajuće strategije&nbsp; koje&nbsp; mogu&nbsp; pomoći&nbsp; učenicima&nbsp; u&nbsp; savladavanju&nbsp; sadržaja fizike.&nbsp; S&nbsp; obzirom&nbsp; na&nbsp; to&nbsp; da&nbsp; postoji&nbsp; veza&nbsp; između&nbsp; postignuća&nbsp; i metakognicije&nbsp; učenika,&nbsp; poželjno&nbsp; je&nbsp; primenjivati&nbsp; strategije&nbsp; koje istovremeno&nbsp; podstiču&nbsp; razvoj&nbsp; metakognicije.&nbsp; U&nbsp; ovom&nbsp; radu&nbsp; je predložena modifikovana strategije Znam-Želim da&nbsp; znam-Naučio sam,&nbsp; koja&nbsp; se&nbsp; može&nbsp; koristiti&nbsp; u&nbsp; nastavi&nbsp; fizike&nbsp; s&nbsp; ciljem&nbsp; podsticanja istraživanja&nbsp; i&nbsp; praktičnog&nbsp; rada.&nbsp; U&nbsp; okviru&nbsp; modifikovane&nbsp; strategije učenici&nbsp; popunjavaju&nbsp; tabelu&nbsp; od&nbsp; četiri&nbsp; kolone:&nbsp; Mislim&nbsp; i&nbsp; znam; Pitanja koja imam; Kako mogu da saznam; i Naučio sam.Cilj&nbsp; sprovedenog&nbsp; istraživanja&nbsp; bio&nbsp; je&nbsp; da&nbsp; se&nbsp; ispita&nbsp; uticaj&nbsp; primene modifikovane&nbsp; strategije&nbsp; Znam-Želim&nbsp; da&nbsp; znam-Naučio&nbsp; sam postignuća&nbsp; i&nbsp; metakogniciju&nbsp; učenika&nbsp; u&nbsp; osnovno&scaron;kolskoj&nbsp; nastavifizike.&nbsp; U&nbsp; realizovanom&nbsp; pedago&scaron;kom&nbsp; eksperimentu&nbsp; sa&nbsp; paralelnim grupama&nbsp; (eksperimentalnom&nbsp; i&nbsp; kontrolnom),&nbsp; učestvovao&nbsp; je&nbsp; 141 učenik&nbsp; (5&nbsp; odeljenja)&nbsp; &scaron;estog&nbsp; razreda&nbsp; (uzrasta&nbsp; 11-12&nbsp; godina). Postignuća učenika su procenjena primenom inicijalnog i finalnog testa&nbsp; koji&nbsp; su&nbsp; kreirani&nbsp; za&nbsp; potrebe&nbsp; istraživanja,&nbsp; dok&nbsp; je&nbsp; za&nbsp; procenu metakognicije&nbsp; učenika&nbsp; kori&scaron;ćen&nbsp; upitnik&nbsp; o&nbsp; nivou&nbsp; metakognicije.<br />Statističkom obradom dobijenih podataka pokazano je da primena modifikovane&nbsp; strategije&nbsp; Znam-Želim&nbsp; da&nbsp; znam-Naučio&nbsp; sam,&nbsp; u realizaciji&nbsp; nastave&nbsp; fizike&nbsp; u&nbsp; &scaron;estom&nbsp; razredu&nbsp; osnovne&nbsp; &scaron;kole,pozitivno&nbsp; utiče&nbsp; na&nbsp; učenička&nbsp; postignuća&nbsp; i&nbsp; metakogniciju.&nbsp; Takođe,pokazano je da postignuća ne zavise, dok metakognicija zavisi od pola učenika. Na osnovu dobijenih podataka utvrđeno je da postoji statistički značajna slaba korelacija između učeničkih postignuća i metakognicije.&nbsp; Rezultati istraživanja&nbsp; ukazuju&nbsp; na to&nbsp; da&nbsp; bi opisana strategija trebalo da se koristi u osnovno&scaron;kolskoj nastavi fizike.</p>

"Can you define 'plan' as 'a loose sequence of manifestly inadequate observations and conjectures, held together by panic, indecision, and ignorance'? If so, it was a very good plan." Jonathan Stroud, The Ring of Solomon Jonathan Stroud knew that a plan cannot stand alone and needs more. Every business needs a strategy. Academics in the field of strategic management have bewailed the field's disparate, ambiguous nature. The question arises: how can these concerns be compliant with the substantial success that strategic management experienced in the past? The weaknesses of strategic management seem to be its strengths. In their study, Nag, Hambrick and Chen (2007) suggest that strategic management acts as an intellectual dealer entity, which thrives by enabling the simultaneous pursuit of multiple research orientations by a variety of disciplinary and philosophical regimes. The Bain and Company Management Tools and Trends, (Rigby & Bilodeau 2011) indicated the importance of management tools and how these tools can enhance an organisation's ability to strategise for the future. Mankins and Steele (2005) identified factors resulting in a strategy-to-performance gap and made recommendations on how an organisation can minimise such gaps. Tait and Nienaber (2010) came to the conclusion that the use of management tools could reduce challenges of formulation, implementation and evaluation resulting in closing or minimising the strategy-to-performance gap. In view of the findings of these three above-mentioned studies, this study of SAEO aimed to explore (identify, describe and understand) what factors top, middle and frontline managers perceived to hinder strategy implementation at SAEO during the 2009/10-2010/11 financial years, resulting in a strategy-to-performance gap and to determine how these factors affect the organisation. This study was conducted as a qualitative case study that used empirical evidence from real people in a real-life organisation. Data was collected from a South African electronics organisation (henceforth referred to as SAEO) involving 14 managers at three different hierarchical levels (top, middle and frontline managers). They were required to answer semi-structured questions on to how these strategy-formulation-implementation-evaluation phases affect their working environment. The interviews were conducted at the premises of the organisation and permission was sought from the CEO who granted permission for the researcher to request the managers to participate. Information was used from previous authors and a replication study was conducted using the Mankins and Steele (2005) and Tait and Nienaber (2010) studies. The purpose of this study was to identify, describe and understand "what factors, if any, hinder strategy implementation" (Ehlers & Lazenby, 2004; Mankins & Steele, 2005; Tait & Nienaber, 2010). Ehlers and Lazenby (2004:117) and Mankins and Steele (2005:66) have indicated that strategy implementation is the most difficult part of the strategic management process. In the Mankins and Steele (2005) and Tait and Nienaber (2010) studies, although the order differed, the most prevalent performance factors contributing to the strategy-to-performance gap were identified as a lack of focus/conflicting priorities and no resources, inadequate skills and capabilities, unclear accountabilities for execution, insufficient rewards and consequences and poorly communicated strategies. The results of this SAEO study confirmed that ineffective communication, followed by inadequate monitoring; insufficient leadership and no approved strategy were the main reasons for the strategy-to-performance gap. It seemed as if SAEO had a bigger challenge in communicating its strategy to employees than was the case in the Mankins and Steele (2005) and the Tait and Nienaber (2010) studies. Although the biggest challenge at the four South African Life Insurers (Tait & Nienaber, 2010) was inadequate or unavailable resources, the challenge at SAEO was ineffective communication and it was evident that it should be addressed to close the strategy-to-performance gap. Both challenges are part of the strategy implementation phase although communication could be related to formulation, implementation and evaluation of strategy. Although the results (ranking of factors indicated to contribute to the strategy-to-performance phenomenon) of this study did not entirely concur with the studies of Mankins and Steele (2005) and Tait and Nienaber (2010), the important fact remains that without a formulated strategy on how to ensure survival and growth of an organisation, challenges such as ineffective communication and/or inadequate or unavailable resources which were found in the three studies (Mankins & Steele, 2005; Tait & Nienaber, 2010; and the SAEO study) will have a negative effect on an organisation's future growth and prosperity. It became evident from this (SAEO) study that every member of an organisation will be affected should a strategy-to-performance gap exist. Therefore it is crucial that each organisation timeously identify possible factors that can result in a strategy-to-performance gap and determine what can be done to close or narrow those performance gaps. Lear (2012) contends that even if an organisation has the most outstanding strategy, the strategy will mean nothing if it is not understood at all levels within the organisation. That includes all processes to be aligned to achieve the organisation's objectives. / Business Management / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

The purpose of this study was to determine which specific resources contribute to the strategy-to-performance gap of small businesses trading in the Pietermaritzburg metropolitan area, from a resource-based perspective of strategic management. The research was prompted by a study conducted by Marakon Associates, the purpose of which was to investigate how successfully companies translate their strategies into performance and what steps they take to close the resulting strategy-to-performance gaps. The main reasons advanced for poor strategy-to-performance results are inadequate or unavailable resources. The research design in the study is quantitative and descriptive in nature. The data was collected from a structured questionnaire comprising of 18 questions emailed to the owners using LimeSurvey. The findings of the survey show that the businesses surveyed lack resources, which leads directly to strategy-to-performance gaps. The most important resources they lack are financial and human resources. / Business Management / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

Purpose: The strategy-to-performance gap is a contemporary problem that causes organisations to perform less than optimal or fail. Leadership, strategy and performance are complex areas of research on the topic with lack of conclusive results, and solutions to the issue remain elusive. This study offered a clearer understanding of the problem. Design: This qualitative study explored leadership style in the context of strategy execution with the objective of offering a better understanding of performance and the strategy-to-performance gap. The study is a case study of selected organisations in the wine industry in South Africa. Data were collected via interviews on leadership figures and employees. Data were analysed qualitatively. Findings: The study confirmed the existence and issues surrounding the strategy-to-performance gap. Some findings concurred with previous studies on the gap and confirmed that it is intertwined with leadership and strategy execution issues. New themes were identified that contributed to the field of study and could prove to be valuable to narrow the strategy-to-performance gap in future. Value: Leadership is linked with performance in literature but there was limited research found on leadership style specifically in the context of the strategy-to-performance gap. This study confirmed issues surrounding the gap and it was found that the issue is a contemporary problem affecting organisational performance in various ways. This contributed to a better understanding of the problem. New themes that emerged could prove valuable to further research. Leadership and specifically leadership styles (as per Lewin) were found to influence and be interwoven with the strategy-to-performance gap. This study is original as it is the first study that explored leadership styles specifically in the context of the other key themes: strategy and the strategy-to-performance gap. The new themes that emerged are leadership style requirements from an employee satisfaction perspective as well as specific skills suggested to improve performance, all highlighted in the findings. Recommendations: Further research could explore leadership styles in more detail with regard to the strategy-to-performance gap. New themes in the context of strategy execution and leadership style could also be valuable. Future studies could also potentially evaluate the key themes with other measurement instruments such as different leadership styles or different performance criteria / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

In today’s globalized business world enterprises face increasing competition and accompanying internal and external threats that challenge their enterprise strategies. Multiple examples of enterprises show that long-lasting strategies need to be progressively overworked in order to secure competitiveness. One key for long-term competitiveness seems to lie in the ability to find a reasonable ratio of strategic stability and change. Neglecting the tension of strategic stability and change can have fatal consequences. Strategic management research increasingly focuses on this challenge. Lately research on ambidexterity and dynamic capability attempts to explain the underlying issues of proactively balancing strategic tensions in dynamic markets. Yet, there remain a couple of questions that – unanswered – limit the explanatory power of recent research models. Because of conceptual ambiguities around the concepts of ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities, until now it remains unclear how a balance between strategic stability and change is reached and managed, and how the underlying strategic decision and strategic management processes at the organizational level look like. To address these open issues, this work develops an alternative framework of strategic ambidexterity. It is defined as a deliberate mechanism to detect, monitor, steer, coordinate and balance stability and change of the enterprise strategy. It argues that enterprises do not deal with strategic stability and change accidently. Quite on the contrary, the enterprises’ key actors are aware of this challenge and have a mechanism in place that allows them to deliberately and continuously employ the right ratio of strategic stability and change. This deliberate mechanism is assumed to create performance differences. High-performing enterprises have a particular setting of the mechanism that distinguishes them from low-performing peers and that secures their long-term competitiveness. In order to empirically test the mechanism a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) using a sample of 74 mechanical engineering enterprises is performed. As will be shown there are in fact differences between high and low-performing enterprises. The strategic behavior of high-performing enterprises can be classified as Guided Long-Term Inclusive Planning (GLTIP). This work adds new knowledge to the research on ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities and also contributes to the methodological discussion on the analysis of sustainable competitive advantage in today’s globalized and dynamic markets.:1. Introduction 2. High-performing enterprises, strategic management and dynamic environments – multiple paths of explaining sustainable competitive advantage 3. Toward a multidimensional framework of balancing strategic stability and change: a steering mechanism 4. A comparative configurational analysis of the mechanism of strategic ambidexterity with regard to different performance settings 5. Discussion of results: introducing Guided Long-Term Inclusive Planning (GLTIP) 6. Management implications: GLTIP in action 7. Conclusions, limitations and directions for future research