A taxonomy of manufacturing strategies in China

A taxonomy not only provides a parsimonious description of strategic groups that is useful in discussion and research, but also aids theory building. However, taxonomic studies in the operations strategy literature are scarce. Major studies that use North American or European data to develop taxonomies of manufacturing strategies contend that the applicability of their identified taxonomies to other countries remains unclear. Furthermore, the construction of theory is not complete without regular verification and replication to account for competitive paradigm shifts and new environmental imperatives. In our study, we replicated the well-acknowledged taxonomy of manufacturing strategies of [Miller, J.G., Roth, A.V., 1994. A taxonomy of manufacturing strategies, Management Science 40 (3), 285–304] using data from one of the world's fastest growing economies—China. A taxonomy of manufacturing strategies is identified and is found to be different from the strategic clusters of Caretakers, Marketeers and Innovators in Miller and Roth. The underlying dimensions that defined our clusters are also different from those in Miller and Roth. Our study also derived an interesting insight that a taxonomy that is based on realized strength rather than emphasis on competitive capabilities can better explain a company's financial performance.