Abstract

The competitive nature of the bakery industry requires firms to adopt structured strategic management practices in order to remain sustainable and profitable. This study investigated the effect of strategic management practices on organizational performance among bread baking firms. Guided by the Resource-Based View, Porter’s Five Forces, and Dynamic Capabilities Theory, the study adopted a descriptive survey design. Data were collected from 120 managers and administrative staff across registered bread baking firms using a structured questionnaire, and analyzed with descriptive statistics, correlation, and multiple regression. The results showed that strategy formulation (β = 0.31, p < 0.001), strategy implementation (β = 0.28, p < 0.01), and environmental scanning (β = 0.22, p < 0.05) significantly enhanced organizational performance, while strategy evaluation had a positive but non-significant effect. Overall, the model explained 52% of the variance in performance (R² = 0.52). The findings suggest that bread baking firms can improve productivity, profitability, and competitiveness through effective strategic planning, robust implementation, and proactive environmental analysis. The study concludes that institutionalizing strategic management practices is critical for sustaining growth in the bakery sector and recommends that firms strengthen evaluation mechanisms to support long-term performance.