Abstract

• This study is an attempt to analyze the strategies and performances of private banks in Myanmar. The main objective of this study is to identify the strategies practiced by the private banks in Myanmar to evaluate their performances and to explore the linkages between the strategies and performances. Data are analyzed using both exploratory and descriptive methods in quantative and qualitative analysis. The study shows that most organizations appreciate the importance of the strategy to achieve business success. The study applied the Miles and Snow's types of strategy: prospector, analyser, defender and reactor. Findings from this study point out that one fourth of the respondent banks practiced prospector strategy, another one fourth practiced defender strategy and the remaining banks used analyzer strategy, but none of the remaining respondents applied reactor strategy. On the whole, the prospector banks appeared to be able to communicate the strategy from the top to bottom more effectively than the analyser and defender banks. From the analysis of financial and nonfinancial performances, it discovered that the prospector banks (KBZ bank and AYA bank) achieved higher level performance in non-financial performance but could be deduced in terms of financial performance that the defender bank (SMIDB bank) and analyser bank (FPB bank) realized a higher performance level. The study suggested that by using performance for a different period or covering a longer time period will be able to confirm any changes in strategy choices and their results will affect on the performance of the banks.