Strategic Fit in global Production Networks - Developement of a Decision Support for the Strategic Production Network Configuration

• Applicant: Professorin Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza
• Subject Area: Production Systems, Operations Management, Quality Management and Factory Planning
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 580524525

The right strategic design of value creation in the global production network plays a decisive role in maintaining the company's competitiveness in the long term. This state is referred to as strategic fit and is formally defined as congruence between network configuration, corporate environment and strategic corporate goals. However, today's production networks are characterized by complex, multidimensional objectives. Several, sometimes conflicting, strategic motives are often pursued simultaneously. On the other hand, there is volatility and dynamism in the current corporate environment, which can cause production networks to lose their strategic fit. Therefore, an approach is needed that brings transparency to these fit-constituting interdependencies in the network configuration in order to define appropriate countermeasures. Previous approaches lack a systematic analysis of strategic fit, so this application aims to develop a decision support model for strategic network configuration, taking into account strategic goals and the corporate environment. The decision support model should consist of the following four sub-models: The descriptive model should enable a holistic capture of network configuration, strategy and business environment. The explanatory model is intended to analyze strategic performance and derive strategically appropriate network structures. These network structures are to be detailed with a design model. A superordinate process model should systematically guide the user from the analysis of the current situation to the definition and selection of a suitable strategic network configuration. This approach enables practitioners to systematically derive a suitable strategic network configuration that optimally supports the strategic goals while taking the company's individual environment into account. At the same time, this work contributes to the academic discourse on strategic fit in global production networks by applying contingency theory considerations to the multilateral links of network configuration to strategy and environment.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants