Miles And Snow's Strategic Typology Analysis

Strategy typologies have been widely used to describe business strategies within a particular industry (Tan, Weston, & Tang, 2009). Parnell describes two generic strategy typologies that have had a considerable amount of influence on strategic management - one developed by Porter and the other developed by Miles and Snow (2014; Tan, et. al, 2009). These two strategies are commonly cited. Porter’s generic strategy framework is believed to provide “potentially valuable research tool for classifying the strategies of all competitors within an industry” (Dess & Davis, 1984, p. 469). The Miles and Snow’s strategic typology “classifies firms into one of four groups (Defenders, Prospectors, Analyzers, and Reactors) based on a firm’s response to three challenges (i.e., entrepreneurial problems …show more content…
Many organizations choose Miles and Snow because of its strong “generalizability across a variety of business and industry settings” (Allen, et. al, 2010, para. 9). Allen, et. al, further asserts that Miles and Snow’s typology recognizes how organizations respond to adaptive challenges (2010). Porter is renowned for yielding a competitive advantage for organizations. It provides managers with the ability to decipher a complex industry by identifying and emphasizing key strategic factors (Parnell, 2010).

For a business to be an effective competitor, they have to have a business strategy (Porter, 2010). Therefore, utilizing either Porter or Miles and Snow framework would be beneficial for any organization’s business strategy. However, for the purpose of this discussion, I believe Porter’s generic strategies would be most beneficial for a startup company, in particular, a focus strategy. Porter’s typology, would allow for the business to concentrate on a particular product or service, if successful, the company can improve and add more, if unsuccessful - back to the drawing