An empirical examination of shift strategies in the service industry: how hospitals adapt to industry change.

Research on the ability of firms to select different strategies in an effort to shift their strategic position has focused almost entirely on the mature manufacturing industries. In this paper, we propose that the relationship of strategy selection in manufacturing extends to the service industry, and test this proposition in one very visible faction of the service industry, health care. The results of this study show that health care organizations use both operational and strategic shift strategies to adjust to new environmental conditions.