Despite strategic management advocating for the use of strategic control practices to improve the implementation of strategic plans and competitive position, establishing the strategic control-performance relationship has been problematic, suggesting failure by researchers to consider contingent variables. This study used data, collected during the period November 2008 to May 2009 from 109 senior managers in a census survey of 45 firms in the sugar value-chain in western Kenya, to examine the moderating effect of strategic orientation on the relationship between belief control and competitive position. Descriptive statistics, bi-variate regression analysis and moderated regression analysis were used to analyze data. The findings revealed moderate prevalence of Interactive control mean 2.86, std dev 0.83. The most prevalent strategic orientation was the reactor (60%), followed by defender (24%); prospectors (9%) and analyzers (7%). All the four levers were positively and significantly related to competitive position (interactive β = 0.393, p < 0.01). The results of this study suggest that urgent measures are required by the firms in the study to design interractive control systems to cope with the changing business environment. The study contributes to validation and upgrade of the existing belief control theory. For managers, the study sheds light on the design and use of belief controls and also for public sector managers in guiding the strategic change. It is recommended that future studies focus on the specific firms in sugar value chain and adopt longitudinal casestudy designs to establish causal relationships among variables.