The objective of this study is both theoretical and empirical. On the theoretical level strategy concept, its operationalization and measurement are analysed and clarified. On the empirical level marketing strategies and competitive strategies are described by country. The study also identifies the strategic marketing decisions characterizing different countries or competitive strategies. Furthermore, the relationships between strategies and marketing structures and functions are analysed. The connections between marketing strategy and competitive strategy are analysed on both the theoretical and empirical level. The data of the study consists of personal interviews of 102 large sawmills. The data was collected from Finland, Western USA and British Columbia, Canada.
On the theoretical level, the strategy concept is analysed by classifying the concepts used in strategy research into five different types. The data of the study makes it possible to empirically compare two different strategy concepts and three countries. Marketing strategy is analysed in terms of decisions concerning products, customers, market areas and marketing competence. The Finnish sawmills differ from the Western North American sawmills with a more advanced marketing strategy emphasizing specialty- and custom-made products and few customers and market areas. The Finnish sawmills are also applying more advance competitive strategies. Hypotheses concerning the relationships between marketing strategy and competitive strategy gain support from the empirical findings. Connections between marketing strategy and marketing structures and functions were found to exist, which provides validation for the used operationalization of the marketing strategy concept.
The PDF includes a summary in Finnish.