Between saying and doing is the ocean: an empirical exploration of the gap between strategic marketing plans and their implementation in the life sciences industry

Abstract

The difference between what firms’ strategic marketing plans say and what those firms do in practice is a long-standing issue. This paper describes work to empirically test Smith’s 2013 model of marketing strategy implementation, itself a synthesis of several concepts from the organisational behaviour and organisational psychology literatures. Using a sample of 391 respondents from 53 medium and large firms in the life sciences sector, it was found that there is only a 50% overlap between plans and execution. Further, as Smith’s model suggested, intraorganisational conflict was found to be the most important cause of this phenomenon, whilst individual commitment is an important secondary cause. Attempts to demonstrate moderating factors suggested by Smith’s model were unsuccessful. This work contributes to theory by providing the first robust explanation of why firms do not fully execute their strategic marketing plans. It also contributes to practice by measuring the gap between plan and practice in marketing strategy and suggesting ways that gap might be reduced.