Strategic Position of Industrial Firms with Regards Competitive Priorities in Operations: Development and Application of a Measuring Indicator

The model of competitive priorities in operations is one of the main pillars of research in operations strategy. These priorities are a part of the content of this strategy, together with the decisions in structure and infrastructure. Different approaches have been appearing in the specialised literature to try to explain how companies compete while considering these priorities. The objective of the current work is to propose a new indicator that positions firms with respect to the competitive priorities, and to analyse how the position relates to business results. This indicator allows us to determine the degree of development of capabilities in the operations competitive priorities that constitute the basis of competence in industrial firms. We apply the proposed indicator to a sample of Spanish industrial firms.