Long-Range Planning And Organizational Performance: A Cross-Valuation Study

Abstract

This study is an attempt to validate and extend a study by Thune & House on the performance of formal planners vs informal planners. A new independent variable, profits, was used to cross-validate the planning questionnaire of the original study. In addition, it was hypothesized that R & D expenditures would be higher for the formal planners than for the informal planners. This, if confirmed, would provide a second source of construct validity for the original questionnaire due to the future orientation of both formal planning and R & D, which would lead one to be theoretically predicted by the other. Using a sample of five pairs of formal and informal planners, comparison over a 7-year period showed formal planners to outperform informal planners on sales and profits and to significantly out-spend informal planners on R & D expenditures. Theoretical limitations and implications are discussed.