The leading companies of Mexico, 1976--2006: Organizational survival, strategic adaptation and superior performance in the global economic revolt

If organizations are rather vulnerable to environmental changes, too many business firms in Mexico should have disappeared in the last three decades of unstoppable inflation and peso devaluations, plus aggressive opening of the Mexican economy to global competition. How many Mexican business companies survived these economically devastating years? How did the "few" enduring survivors manage to adapt? What kind of strategic and organizational change was employed to endure such challenging environmental conditions?;In an attempt to answer these questions, this study involved a rigorous selection of 150 of the most enduring and adaptive Mexican organizations among a large universe of 3,604 business companies. Statistical results show that radical changes in the composition of the population of large business organizations in Mexico occurred from 1976 to 2006. An examination of the strategic and organizational change in the firms that survived and prospered under severe conditions and aggressive competition suggests that they did so because they strengthened their competitive capabilities through effective changes in business orientations and organizational arrangements. Conversely, the study suggests that the decline, deterioration, or disappearance of the other firms resulted because of passive business strategies and inertial organizational design, or ineffective implementation of change.;Findings reveal that five of the eight strategic change predictors and two of the six organizational change predictors have a significant impact on the dependent variable: the endurance-adaptation index of firms. However, only three of the significant predictors are positive: entering stock markets, business diversification, and belonging to business groups. Strategic and organizational change practices are isomorphic, similar in form and applied by the majority of organizations. To explain the endurance and performance index of firms, it is suggested that strategic change variables are more significant than organizational change variables.;The concept of competition is radically changing among the top players of the Mexican economy. From a strategic point of view, several forms of inter-firm collaboration, business alliances, and, overall, mergers and acquisitions have become crucial to the endurance and performance of the leading business organizations in Mexico. Inter-organizational relations are creating powerful economic coalitions and business groups.