to develop new ideas, products, services and destinations. For example, there is aninternational interest in developing niches, which are specific interests and activities thatpeople might find interesting as an activity for their holiday. Recent developments thatcharacterize this include the rise of natural-based ecotourism products, of wine and food-based tourism, following on people’s interests, provides an example of a successfuldevelopment of niche products. With all these roles, researchers as well as governmentshave agreed on the need of development strategies, as a successful and beneficial waytowards the future.strategy, corporate strategy, business strategy, developing strategies, tourismoperators

Malina Cordos

Tourism is a phenomenon that is constantly evolving

English

Research Papers in Economics

Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 11(2), 2009 
 
 
 
 
 
833
TYPES OF STRATEGIES FOR THE TOURISTIC FIRMS 
 
 
Mălina Cordo 
1 
 
 
ABSTRACT: Tourism is a phenomenon that is constantly evolving, developing and reformulating 
itself as a consumer activity. Tourism is constantly being developed by the tourism industry and 
individual business to appeal to the consumer, as marketing is used to develop new ideas, products, 
services and destinations. For  example, there is  an international interest in developing niches, 
which are specific interests and activities that people might find interesting as an activity for their 
holiday.  Recent developments that characterize this include the rise of natural based ecotourism 
products, of wine and food based tourism, following on people’s interests, provides an example of a 
successful development of niche products. With all these roles, researchers as well as governments 
have agreed on the need of development strategies, as a successful and beneficial way towards the 
future. 
    
Keywords: strategy, corporate strategy, business strategy, developing strategies, tourism operators 
   
JEL codes: M10 
 
 
Introduction 
  The  present  economic  context  is  characterized  by  a  dynamic,  unstable  and  uncertain 
environment and by a growing competition at regional, national and global levels. In this type of 
context conceiving a strategy in the tourism field – which is possibly one of the key factors for the 
romanian economic and social development – is a difficult, but absolutely necessary task, no matter 
the size, form of propriety or territorial profile that the tourism companies have.                
  In the following years big changes are expected in the Romanian tourism. In my opinion 
they will be more important than the changes in the last and a half-decade.  
  New  consumers  will  determine  the  future  market  opportunities  by  a  new  social  and 
economic environment, by new products and services, by new destinations and by new information 
and distribution channels.  
  Both the big and small tourism operators can and will profit from these advantages and 
opportunities. Thus, many questions arise: What type of strategies and what type of investments or 
products will be demanded in the future? Which destinations will be more attractive? If it were to 
place a bet, what will be the information and communication technologies’ impact on tourism? How 
can we stimulate innovation in touristy services? What initiatives and strategies will have to be 
emphasized? 
  Elaborating and applying strategies in Romanian tourism companies is a complex process, 
which necessitates realistic options and profound specificities of this field, which is so alive, and in 
continuing expansion. A dynamic and harsh competition causes this sector to change in front of our 
eyes. It is up to us to “catch” the unprecedented environment changes and to foresee their future. 
The best way to do this is by elaborating strategies – which represent perspective, positioning, plan 
and pattern.   
  The organization’s strategy theme has concerned a series of management personalities, the 
most representative being: Harry Igor Ansoff, Alfred D. Chandler, Kenichi Ohmae and Michael 
E.Porter. 
                                                 
1 “1 Decembrie 1918” University, No.5, Gabriel Bethlen, malina_cordos@yahoo.com Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 11(2), 2009 
 
 
 
 
 
834
  Whittington (2001) divides the strategy concept in four different approaches. The classic 
approach has its origins in Chadler’s (1962) and Ansoff’s (1965) first approaches and concentrates 
on the analysis and planning of a correct strategy and on the organisation’s positioning on the 
market. This strategy is based on carefully studied planning and analyzing and is formulated and 
implemented on the basis of these types of decisions. A question that rises in this context is: how 
can the organisation’s structures be determined to accept rational strategic decisions taken by the 
top management? Still, this approach doesn’t take into consideration the other members that can 
participate in the strategy’s elaboration, nor the possibility of irrational decisions taken by the top 
management. In this vision, the strategy’s implementation, thou considered important, is left to the 
organisation’s structures and not to people like medium level managers. The evolutionary approach 
is based on the natural selection principle which means on the market the strongest survives. In this 
context the manager’s individual strategic decisions are not considered important and his role is 
limited to maintain the costs low. With this approach the environment is the one that leaves a mark 
on the strategy’s structure. The process approach brings to attention the cognitive limitations of the 
top managers’ actions and of the organisation’s policies. This approach criticizes the planning’s 
almightiness and considers it a simple managerial ritual. The systemic approach sees the strategy 
tied  to  the  sociological  context,  closed  in  the  social  and  economic  system.  In  this  context  the 
cultural conditions are essential and differ from one country to the other and from one organisation 
to another. These different points of view are presented in table no. 1.         
 
 
Table no. 1.  
Different perspectives of the strategy’s elaboration approach (Whittington, 2001) 
Perspective on strategy  The characteristics of the strategy’s elaboration process  
The classic approach 
A top managers’ process of analysis, calculus and rational 
decision taking, followed by the implementation  
The evolutionary 
approach 
The environment decides who survives 
The process approach 
Instead of a formal planning process, the strategy’s elaboration 
process is pragmatic, based on learning and understanding 
The systemic approach 
The process depends on the social systems inside which the 
strategy is elaborated 
 
A conclusion to Whittington’s perspective is that when searching the best way to elaborate a 
strategy it is hard to win by using one strategy or another, but when trying to adapt the strategy to 
the market and to the social and organisational environment each of these approaches has a well 
deserved place.  
Thomas  L.  Wheelen  (2006)  delimits  three  types  of  strategies  in  the  book  “Strategic 
management and Bussiness Policy. Concepts and Cases”: corporate strategies, business strategies 
and functional strategies. According to Wheelen, the corporation strategies describe the general 
directions of a firm, in terms of its attitude towards growth in general, towards the management of 
different  parts  of  the  company  and  towards  the  production  line.  These  strategies  are  generally 
placed in one of the next situations for the company: stability, growth and restraint. The business 
strategies target the improvement of the products and services’ strategic positions inside a specific 
industry or inside a market segment. This strategy delimits two distinct categories: competitive 
strategies and cooperative strategies. In some cases the cooperative strategies can be used as a base 
for the competitive strategies. The functional strategies represent the vision of a company’s or 
businesses functional component to reach the company or business’ objectives by maximizing the 
productivity of the resources. The company bases this strategy on the development of a specific 
competency in order to obtain a strategic advantage.      Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 11(2), 2009 
 
 
 
 
 
835
According to this approach the relation between these three types of strategy can be outlined 
as in figure no. 1. 
 
 
 
 
 
Fig.  no. 1. Strategies hierarchy (Wheelen, 2006) 
 
Leslie  W.Rue  and  Phyllis  G.  Holland  (Whellen,  1986)  categorize  the  strategies  in  two 
groups:  the  superior  type  organisation  strategies  group  and  enterprise  level  or  business  centre 
strategies group.  
The superior type organisation strategies group includes:  
  Growth  strategies  (concentration,  vertical  integration  and  diversifying 
strategies);  
  Stabilizing strategies;  
  Defensive strategies; 
  Combined strategies. 
The enterprise level or business centre strategies group includes:  
  Strategies based on production and distribution policies and on generally 
low prices;  
  Products and services differentiating strategies;  
  The product or service focusing strategy on a certain market or on certain 
markets.   
As a strategy object, the business was an attraction point for many established authors of the 
strategic management - I.H. Ansoff (1965), M.E. Porter (1980), H. Mintzberg (1988), M.Gervais 
(1995), J. Chevalier (2002) etc. Next I will try to bring in to the forefront a few of the more 
complex and pertinent typological approaches. 
Mintzberg also sets the strategies’ boundaries, depending on the main business’s positioning 
in one of the technological process’s phases, as follows (H. Mintzberg, J. Lampel, J.B. Quinn, S. 
Goshal, 2003, p.116-118):  
THE CORPORATE STRATEGY 
The company’s, management’s and its businesses general directions 
 
 
 
STRATEGIA DE AFACERI 
 
 
 
STRATEGIA FUNCŢIONALĂ 
THE BUSINESS STRATEGY 
The competitive and cooperative strategies 
THE FUNCTIONAL STRATEGY 
Maximizing the resources’ productivity Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 11(2), 2009 
 
 
 
 
 
836
  Strategies  for  the  first  developing  stages  –  the  phases  where  one  or  more  raw 
materials are combined in order to result different basic products, with multiple using. 
These phases tend to be intensive in technology and capital, rather than intensive in 
human resources, but also seeking to obtain a strategic advantage by keeping costs 
low.   
  Strategies for the second developing stages – the phases where we can combine a raw 
material and obtain semi-manufactured goods, which combined lead to final products.   
  Strategies for the third developing stages – the phases which regard the product’s 
assembling, it transportation and distribution to consumers.   
Another classification of Mintzberg, which has as criteria the distinctive characteristics, 
which give an organization the possibility to obtain a competitive advantage, allows him to delimit 
the following strategy types (Mintzberg, 2003):     
  Designing strategies, which aim fields like research and product developing; 
  Processing  strategies,  which  aim:  the  developing  of  processes  and  operations 
(manufacturing, assembling, etc.) 
  Resources’ ensurance strategies (material, human, financial); 
  Delivering strategies, which are concentrated on marketing (market channels, prices, 
promoting), sales, distribution, services.    
  Support strategies, which aim fields like: legal field, control, training, etc.  
 
Practical implications  
  The purpose of my future research will be to bring to the forefront not just theoretic aspects 
concerning the managerial strategy, the way it is elaborated, implemented and used by companies, 
but also aspects tied to the putting into practice of the strategy, like companies, particularly tourism 
companies, see it. Although the process of implementing the strategy influences the activity of 
many organisations’ members, researching the strategy has only recently become important for the 
practitioners  activity.  Thus,  managers  became  a  group  of  actors  whose  role  in  the  strategy’s 
elaboration process is not completely known. Although, the specialized literature contains many 
references  to  the  theoretical  significance  of  this  role,  the  activities  tied  to  practice  are  still 
insufficiently  explored.  The  specialized  literature  doesn’t  offer  enough  information  about  daily 
activities, the instruments and methods of work necessary to implement the strategy.    
  Thus, my future concern will be to carry out a research at Romanian tourism companies, and 
the general objective of the study will be to generate new knowledge about the companies’ success 
or failure to implement these types of strategies. The study will take place at organisations, which 
develop these strategies and are this way motivated to participate in this kind of study.   
  The questions around which the study will be structured are:  
  How does the elaboration’s strategy process unfold in practice inside a Romanian tourism 
company?   
  What are  the differences between  the practical  elaboration  process  of the  managerial 
strategies and the theoretical approach and how can they be brought to a common denominator? 
  For the Romanian tourism companies’ managers, the study will seek to find instruments and 
concepts that will help them to better understand the strategy’s elaboration process. I hope that after 
finishing, the study will be able to give a solid support that will help them in evaluating their 
present  state,  and  to  evaluate  the  possibilities  which  the  elaboration  process  offers.    A  more 
pertinent implication is that the results of the study will allow the managers to develop their own 
strategies by creating new practical implications that will sustain the old ones that are currently 
used.  Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 11(2), 2009 
 
 
 
 
 
837
 
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TYPES OF STRATEGIES FOR THE TOURISTIC FIRMS

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TYPES OF STRATEGIES FOR THE TOURISTIC FIRMS

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