Market-focused strategic flexibility among Nigerian banks

Olalekan Asikhia

Department of Business Studies, College of Business and Social Sciences, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. E-mail: asikola@yahoo.com.

Tel: 0803-3951-474.

Accepted 14 December, 2009

   Abstract

The Nigerian banking environment has been tense with the advent of the global financial crisis and its attendant impact on service delivery and evolving environmental forces. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between market-focused strategic flexibility and sales growth and evaluate the effect of environmental factors on this relationship. A research instrument was administered on the executives responsible for strategic direction of the twenty five banks in the country. The findings indicate that a positive relationship exists between market focused strategic flexibility and sales growth; and that competitive intensity and technological turbulence moderate this relationship. The results suggest that market-focused strategic flexibility acts as a driver of organizational positioning in a dynamic business environment and that it should be incorporated into any conceptualization of an organizational success framework since it exists on a continuum characterized by the degree to which a bank acquires, allocates and reconfigures its resource portfolio.

Key words: Market focused strategic flexibility, market orientation, competitive intensity, demand uncertainty, technological uncertainty, banks, sales growth.