The Relationship between Competitive Strategy Choice and the Components of Firm Efficiency in the General Freight Segment of the Motor Carrier Industry

摘要

This study investigates the impact of choosing a particular strategic focus or foci on operationalproductivity by means of the Malmquist Productivity Index. The Malmquist framework allowsthe researcher to examine the change in operational productivity over a period of time, which isparticularly desirable given that the impact of strategic choices is an inter-temporal phenomenonas opposed to one occurring at a discrete point in time. Furthermore, the Malmquistmethodology allows for the decomposition of the change in operational productivity into the twocomponents of operational efficiency change and technological change. Competitive strategychoices are related to changes in operational productivity (as measured by the MalmquistProductivity Index and its components of operating efficiency and technological) by means of atobit analysis. A consistent sample (for the period 1999-2003) of 83 general freight motorcarriers is utilized. The results of the above analysis are then related to operational profitabilityby means of an analysis of variance.