The objective of this study is to investigate the strategic factors that influence the overall performance of manufacturing organisations in different industries. Strategic groups were identified using cluster analysis and their overall performance was evaluated. Structural equation modelling was used to verify the existence of significant linkages between competitive factors and firms' overall performance within the identified strategic groups. The results of this study pointed out to the existence of a relationship between strategic group membership and firm's overall performance. Overall, the results tend to emphasise the importance of viewing manufacturing performance from a system-wide perspective.