Int. J. Business Excellence, Vol. 12, No. 3, 2017 329 Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Toward promoting effective strategic performance: the relevance of the alignment of performance measurement and competitive strategic choices Carlos F. Gomes* School of Economics, University of Coimbra, ISR-Institute of Systems and Robotics, Av. Dias da Silva 165 – 3004-512 Coimbra, Portugal Email: cfgomes@fe.uc.pt *Corresponding author Mahmoud M. Yasin Department of Management and Marketing, East Tennessee State University, P.O. Box 70625 – Johnson City, TN 37614, USA Email: mmyasin@ETSU.edu Abstract: This research mainly examines the relationship among competitive methods, performance measures, and strategic orientations utilised by 68 Portuguese manufacturing organisations from different industries. The findings reveal that the surveyed organisations appear to be following a hybrid-mixed strategy. The group with the best results adopted the most balanced strategic approach, as it emphasised most of the different strategic dimensions. The examination of the strategic orientations, performance dimensions, and most utilised performance measures reveals inconsistencies among the surveyed organisations, which clearly indicates that the strategic choices and performance measures and measurements are misaligned. This study has direct practical implications to executives of manufacturing organisations, as they attempt to integrate their organisational systems in pursuit of effective strategic competitive performance. Based on the results of this study, a conceptual framework is proposed to facilitate the alignment among the competitive methods, performance measurement, and selected strategy. Keywords: competitive methods; performance measurement; organisational strategy; effective strategic competitive performance. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Gomes, C.F. and Yasin, M.M. (2017) ‘Toward promoting effective strategic performance: the relevance of the alignment of performance measurement and competitive strategic choices’, Int. J. Business Excellence, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp.329–350. Biographical notes: Carlos F. Gomes is an Associate Professor with Aggregation at the School of Economics at the University of Coimbra. He is a researcher at the Institute of Systems and Robotics in Coimbra, Portugal. He received his PhD and MS in Industrial Management, a post-graduate certificate of Advanced Studies in Industrial Quality and International Business, and a BS in Electrical Engineering, all from the University of Coimbra. His main research interests are performance management, operations strategy, and improvement of production systems. He has published in many refereed journals, and proceedings of professional meetings.