Investigating the level of strategic thinking of senior managers and its effect on the factors that create competitive advantage (resource-based) in Tejarat Bank

Dissertation for M.A.

Public Administration

Summer 1390

Abstract:

  Strategic thinking is important to see something that others don't see, discovering a hidden need means discovering a new opportunity, and this concept is considered the basis of innovation in business. The main benefits of an innovation belong to someone who discovers the hidden needs in the environment earlier than others and responds to them better than others. Strategic thinking consists of: using different mental frameworks, many of which are still unknown to examine and analyze and ultimately decide strategic situations. Today's world is the world of business and change is By reviewing the management literature, one can see the general trend towards continuous change. Continuous change is a clear sign of the 20th and 21st centuries. Alvin Toffler has called this process the death of stability and considers it to be related to future shock. To survive in today's business is to have something to offer or a competitive advantage. The world of competition is merciless and anyone who cannot adapt to the changes in the shortest possible time is doomed in today's competitive environment. Such things have made Morgan, the famous theorist, discuss how to create and develop new competitive advantages in business. In general, it can be said that competitive advantage is the factor of survival and success in the next stage. Strategic thinking is also the key to achieving competitive advantage.

  The main purpose of this research is to investigate the level of strategic thinking of Bank Tejarat managers and its effect on the factors that create competitive advantage (resource-based) in Tejarat Bank. The model that was used in this research is a hybrid model that is a combination of two models based on the theories of Jane Liedka and Michael Porter, based on which an attempt was made to measure the level of strategic thinking of senior managers and its impact on the factors that create competitive advantage (resource-based) in Tejarat Bank. The current research method is practical in terms of survey method and purpose. The statistical population of the current research is the senior managers of Tejarat Bank, whose number is 46 people. Out of the 46 people present, 3 people could not answer, and because of this situation, the statistical population is 43 people. Due to the limited size of the statistical population, the entire statistical population is considered as the studied population. In order to collect information, two questionnaires of strategic thinking and competitive advantage (resource-based) were used. In this research, symbolic or formal validity was used to determine the validity of the data collection tool. Cronbach's alpha test was used to test the reliability of the questionnaire. Based on this method, with a preliminary study on 30 employees in the field of  The studied population and using spss statistical software, the reliability of strategic thinking questions and factors creating competitive advantage (resource-based) were obtained as 0.867 and 0.933, respectively. Regression test has been used to test the effect of each independent variable on the dependent variable of these hypotheses. The results show that most of the dimensions of strategic thinking had a positive effect on some of the factors that create competitive advantage (resource-based) in Tejarat Bank.

Key words: strategic thinking, strategic planning, creativity and intuition, competitive advantage and factors that create competitive advantage. General ‌research

1-1. Introduction

  In an environment that is characterized by complexity and continuous change, it is said that innovation capacity and divergent strategic thinking, much more than conservative and convergent strategic planning, are considered as the central core of creating competitive advantage. But it seems that both strategic thinking and strategic planning are the needs of organizations today.Despite the unpredictable and highly complex and competitive environment, the capacity for creative and divergent strategic thinking at multiple organizational levels is considered as the central core of creating and maintaining competitive advantage (Lietdka, 1998, p.32). Strategic thinking is a creative and divergent process and is related to the vision and perspective designed by the leaders of the organization. This requires managers' thinking to go beyond daily operations with the aim of focusing on the long-term strategic goal for the business. Strategic thinking includes activities such as gathering information, analyzing and discussing the conditions governing the organization and in companies with diverse activities, answering basic questions about the organization's portfolio. Abraham Lincoln strategic thinking He knows the identification of reliable strategies or business models that lead to the creation of value for the customer. He believes that the search for finding suitable strategic options, which is usually done as part of the strategic management process, is actually the practical result of strategic thinking (Mashbaki and Khazaei, 1387, 106-106). Ever since Adam Smith proposed the theory of absolute advantage, economists have been inclined to examine the factors affecting the performance of domestic industry. After Adam Smith, Ricardo presented the theory of comparative advantage. David Ricardo modified this view and proposed a category known as "comparative advantage". David Ricardo's point was that market factors direct the country's resources to industries where the country has the highest relative productivity. That is, the country may import a product that it can produce at a low cost, but is more efficient in producing another product. In Ricardo's theory, trade was based on the difference in labor productivity in different countries. He related this issue to the unexplained differences in the atmosphere governing different countries in the field of various industries. Ricardo had chosen the right path, but his assumptions were related to resource-based industries, which mainly used simple and semi-skilled workers (and were of primary importance in the 18th and 19th centuries). It is based on the studies of Hacker Ohlin and the assumption that different nations have equivalent technology and their difference comes from the abundance of production factors, such as land, labor, natural resources and capital; these factors are the primary data for production. Countries gain resource-dependent comparative advantage in industries in which they make the most use of resources that are abundant in those countries. They export these goods and import goods in which they do not have a comparative advantage. For example, countries with abundant and cheap labor, such as South Korea, export consumer goods such as electronic equipment, and countries with abundant primary resources and vast arable land export products based on them. Sweden is advanced in the steel industry due to the fact that it has significant reserves with the least impurities, which makes it produce high-quality products (Hosseini and Panahi, 1386, 153-151).

1-2 statement of the problem

    Today, in the unstable environment of the current banking industry, it is very important and vital to have a new offer that is of interest to customers, generates income, and differentiates one bank from another bank. Historically, like Tejarat Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, they face several problems from the competitive aspect: of which two aspects are more important. The first issue is the entry of new competitors and new entrants into the field of competition. During the last decade, we have witnessed the presence of private banks in the field of competition, each with their own abilities. Iranian banks, such as Tejarat Bank, which is one of the banks with a brilliant and fruitful history in banking, must create competitive advantages for themselves and take advantage of the important factors of consolidating these competitive advantages in order to continue more firmly in this complex environment.

  Many factors are effective in creating competitive advantage, and in this research, the effect of managers' strategic thinking on this matter has been tried to be investigated.