How Top Management Values Impact in Setting Strategic Direction and Directional Corporate Strategies in Large-scale Export-Oriented Companies in Sri Lankan Apparel Industry

Sri Lankan apparel industry is very distinctive industry after the trade liberalization in 1977. Large apparel companies were established after 1977. This paper fundamentally focusses on top management values and how it affects in setting strategic direction and directional corporate strategy of export-oriented companies in Sri Lankan apparel industry. The research was carried out as a qualitative research by using interviews as main data collection tool. The book on life stories of one top manager also taken as secondary source in deriving key findings relating to that top manager. Six top managers from six different large-scale apparel companies were used as the sample based on purposive sampling and thematic analysis was used to analyze data. The paper emphasis the importance of top management values in the apparel context and how it is being impacts on setting strategic direction and directional corporate strategies. Based on the identified finding, this paper discusses about mode of conduct values, self-centered values and society centered values of top managers in Apparel context and deep analysis on how strategies and company’s direction is affected by those top management values. According to the findings, mode of conduct values has identified as the most influential values of top managers, while personal values is the second influential values and society centered values are the least contributing values on setting strategic direction and directional corporate strategies. Key words: Top management values, Strategic direction, Directional corporate strategies, Export– orientation, Sri Lankan apparel industry