Strategic Inertia, the Challenge before Strategic Planning: Evidence from Iran

Continuous environmental changes are, in different forms, threatening the maintenance of organizations. Thus, for any enterprise to survive, it needs to adapt an appropriate strategic approach with which it can, considering its weak and strong points, take the most advantage of environmental opportunities. Although a great deal of studies have, in the past, been done investigating the influence of strategic planning on the performance of firm, it seems that the research literature of the country is still facing lack of applied studies that recognize the factors effective on strategic planning in general, and strategic inertia in particular. Having investigated 120 firms producing food stuffs in the province of Tehran, with the aim of filling the gap existing in the research literature of the country, the present research is indicative of the acceptance of all the hypotheses proposed. In other words, the variables, age, organization size, change in top management group, and change in demographic characteristics of managers are all effective on strategic inertia.

Strategic Inertia, Management Characteristics, Organization Age, Organization Size