The Role of Middle Management in Shaping Strategy and Enhancing Business Performance: Exploring Configurations Through A fsQCA Analysis

The thesis consists in a research project that aims to determine the impact of middle managers on company performance, through an empirical approach backed-up by an in-depth literature review. The thesis begins by exploring the traditional role of middle managers and its evolution in the field of literature and research until culminating with the "Middle Management Perspective", representing the litherary thread that embeds the main contributions to the subject. From an empirical standpoint, qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 21 companies for a total of 53 managers involved belonging to different levels of the organizations. The data were then analyzed using a fsQCA approach, which is ideal to reconcile qualitative and quantitative data, defining a sereis of equifinalistic configurations relevant to the field of middle managers which flow into corporate performance. The study identified key factors related to the sphere of middle managers, offering valuable insights into the important role exerted by middle managers in driving company performance.