Using multiple measures of performance, we related performance differentials between the most and least adaptive firms in the telecommunications equipment industry in the United States to differences in their alignment properties. We found that winners excel uniformly in terms of internal alignment as well as external alignment as compared to losers on all the performance measures considered. However, the contribution of the alignment characteristics to different dimensions of performance varies. This finding has important managerial implications for how these characteristics could be configured for superior strategic adaptation in a rapidly changing industry.
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