The Relationship Between Market Follower Status And The Overall Passivity Of A Firm’s Strategic Profile: Does Fit Relate To Profitability? | Larry Pleshko, Plamen Peev & Richard Heiens

The current study looks at the profit impact of the relationship between a follower approach to marketing initiatives and the overall passivity of a firm?s strategic profile. Evidence from the credit union sector suggests that in more mature and somewhat stagnant industries more aggressive marketing strategies may not be the best choice when profits are the goal. In particular, it is found that firms that match a less aggressive strategic approach with a lower level of marketing initiative tend to exhibit higher levels of ROI and ROA when specific combinations of strategies are present. The results also reveal that in order to be profitable, a follower firm does not have to match its level of initiative to its strategic profile according to all the methods used to determine the latter, as the total number of ?fit? combinations has no relationship to profits.