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Research on strategy replication shows that strategy templates can advance an organization’s mission across geographies by helping create strategic alignment with local conditions. However, local a...

In ever-changing environments, strategic change manifests as a crucial concern for firms and is thus central to the fields ofmanagement and strategy. Common and foundational to all strategic change research is time—whether recognized in the extant studies or not. In this article, we critically review the existing body of knowledge through a time lens. We organize this review along (1) conceptions of time in strategic change, (2) time and strategic change activities, and (3) time and strategic change agents. This approach facilitates our assessment of what scholars do and do not know about strategic change, especially its temporal components. Our review has particularly revealed a need to advance scholarly understanding about the processual dynamics of strategic change. We thus extend our assessment by proposing six pathways for advancing future research on strategic change that aim at fostering an understanding of its processual dynamics: (1) temporality, (2) actors, (3) emotionality, (4) tools and practices, (5) complexity, and (6) tensions.

Although exploratory units constitute a structural mechanism that buffer rigidity and inertia from firms’ core businesses, tensions and challenges may arise when there is a changing strategy at the corporate level that misaligned with the initial purpose of the unit. In this paper, we explain how managers in spatially separated exploration units of an organization deal with the conflicting requirements of exploring emerging industries and senior executives’ initiatives to align the organization around the temporal focus on restoration of core businesses. We uncover internal mechanisms that reveals how an exploratory unit become ambidextrous that enable them to maintain a strategic alignment with the main organization while ensuring required adaptability for exploration in emerging industries. Our findings draw on the longitudinal analysis of exploration activities of a business unit at a global telecommunication firm that responsible for pursuing opportunities in the emerging Internet of Things industry (IoT) between 2015 and 2019. This study contributes to extant literature by developing a link between contextual and structural ambidexterity at the business unit level, and particularly, by showing managerial approaches through which an organizational unit become ambidextrous.

This paper provides insights in the previously under researched phenomena of cross-level strategizing using processual qualitative data collected throughout the implementation of a new strategy ini...

While there exists a vast amount of research on strategy formulation, we know relatively little about how a formulated strategy is translated into results via strategic alignment. Middle managers are often noted as crucial actors in aligning employees to strategic organizational goals, yet their effective behaviors towards this end remain understudied. In response to various calls, this work reviews the available literature on the behaviors of middle managers in the context of strategic alignment of work-floor employees. We adopted a systematic literature review technique, starting with a thorough search with predefined search terms through ABI/Inform Complete and Scopus. The resulting thirteen empirical articles were content-analyzed by two independent raters, leading to a total of 169 behavioral items. Four meta-categories of middle-managerial behaviors were identified that support employee strategic alignment: (1) Direction-oriented behaviors (e.g., monitoring and checking performance); (2) Participation-oriented behaviors (e.g., offering help); (3) Encouragement-oriented behaviors (e.g., getting and giving feedback); and (4) Approachability-oriented behaviors (e.g., showing vulnerability). We present an integrative model of effective middle manager behaviors for employee strategic alignment, which includes, as extra yield, supportive middle managerial personality traits, knowledge and performance areas. Our specific and inclusive model fuels the needed future behavioral and quantitative studies, which can build upon a number of qualitative works that have been published to date, as our review has shown. Understanding exactly which middle managerial behaviors contribute to translating strategy into practice also helps coaches and HR officers in developing managers. This knowledge potentially improves the work lives of many employees.

The article presents an analysis of the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and strategic ethical positioning, which is related to the concept of industry positioning. It dis...

This article examines the correlation between high-performance work systems, firm performance, and dynamic workforce alignment. The author argues that workforce alignment is a significant mediating...

Executive Overview In a highly uncertain and changing environment, managers need to have the strategic flexibility to respond to problems speedily. Strategic flexibility is the organization's capability to identify major changes in the external environment, quickly commit resources to new courses of action in response to those changes, and recognize and act promptly when it is time to halt or reverse existing resource commitments. This strategic flexibility requires managers to find the right balance between committing the resources necessary to carry out a decision and avoiding investment of good money in bad projects. This article seeks to help managers understand the importance of and difficulties in developing strategic flexibility. The challenge in doing this results from the substantial uncertainties inherent in making these strategic decisions as well as from psychological and organizational biases that affect the attention, assessments, and actions of decision-makers in ways that prevent them from...

This study provides a better understanding of how the socially constructed process of strategic renewal emerges from the middle layers in organizations. Using a social network analysis of 95 mid-le...

The results of empirical research on strategic alignment between top management and purchasing are highly inconsistent. Such alignment also is not prevalent in practice. Our conceptual paper tries ...

We present a process theory describing how strategists form and stabilize mental models of causal relationships for the class of strategy problems that involve dynamic decision-making (DDM). Most o...

This paper links strategic human resource management to the person-environment fit paradigm. Adopting a strategic contingency perspective, this paper suggests that the type of person environment-fi...

Executive Overview Competition in the 21st century's global economy will be complex, challenging, and filled with competitive opportunities and threats. Effective strategic leadership practices can help firms enhance performance while competing in turbulent and unpredictable environments. The purpose of this paper is to describe six components of effective strategic leadership. When the activities called for by these components are completed successfully, the firm's strategic leadership practices can become a source of competitive advantage. In turn, use of this advantage can contribute significantly to achieving strategic competitiveness and earning above-average returns in the next century.

A study of strategic credibility and its' determinants is conducted. Testing the impact of corporate strategic communications on strategic credibility, we analyzed responses from a random sample (n...

Purpose How do firms make effective strategic change when competitive advantage deteriorates fast in a dynamic environment? Based on information-processing theory and organizational inertia theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how bottom-up learning affects the speed and magnitude of strategic change and if these relationships are contingent on strategic flexibility. Design/methodology/approach Using data of 213 firms in China, the authors conduct an empirical test of hypotheses through a stepwise multivariate regression approach. Findings The empirical study suggests that resource flexibility weakens the positive relationship between bottom-up learning and the speed of strategic change while strengthens the impact of bottom-up learning on the magnitude of strategic change. In addition, coordination flexibility strengthens the positive impact of bottom-up learning on the speed and magnitude of strategic change. Originality/value The findings not only provide a more nuanced and in-depth understanding of strategic change, but also offer strong guidance for firms on how to make better use of strategic flexibility in order to benefit from bottom-up learning.

The article presents a review of the book “The Management of Strategic Change,” edited by Andrew Pettigrew.

It is axiomatic that strategic flexibility is a key success factor in generating competitive advantage. Despite this maxim, often peddled in the normative literature, empirical studies have produced inconsistent results for the strength and direction of this relationship. We synthesize these results and provide empirical support for a general, moderate, and positive effect of strategic flexibility on firm performance. Moreover, we find that strategic flexibility indirectly affects financial performance through its positive effects on innovation capability and superior market position, and that strategic flexibility has a negative direct effect on financial performance. Importantly, the meta-analytic evidence also indicates that the strategic flexibility-performance relationship depends on measurement methods, the research context, and certain environmental characteristics. Exploratory analyses regarding the antecedents of strategic flexibility reveal many meaningful differences to the predominant expectations in prior research. Overall, our results provide the necessary nuance to discerning the specific antecedent and consequential effects of strategic flexibility, thereby providing valuable implications for managers, and outlining a research agenda for future inquiries.

This study investigates the effect of middle managers’ strategy involvement on their commitment to organizational strategies and their strategic alignment with the CEO. We stress the mediating role...

Over the last years, it has become increasingly important for organizations to align their employees with their organizational strategic priorities. This study extends existing research about employee strategic alignment by examining how newcomers, during organizational entry, get aligned with these organizational strategic priorities. We investigate the relationship between organizational socialization, and more specifically the perceived usefulness of different information sources (i.e., formal orientation and training, colleagues, the direct supervisor and information-seeking behavior), and employee strategic alignment. Furthermore, we examine (a) the relationship between employee strategic alignment and role clarity and (b) the mediating role of employee strategic alignment. Using data from 253 Flemish newcomers about their socialization process and their perceived alignment with the organizational strategic priorities, structural equation modeling shows that only the direct supervisor and information...

We explore the role of line managers and human resource management (HRM) specialists in strategic decision-making for human capital needs. Rooted in the decision-making literature, we draw on bound...

When scholars and researchers codify knowledge for use by other specialists, they make explicit links with existing knowledge that has either been previously legitimated or is novel. We examine how...

Drawing on Configuration theory and Resource Based Theory (RBT), we examine the value creation of the alignment among three constructs of strategic resources, dynamic capabilities and competitive s...

This symposium aims to: 1) showcase scholarship in the developing area of professional service firms (PSFs); 2) challenge assumptions and bring new insight about how institutions, organizations and individuals operate in today’s economy; 3) examine the potential for contributing to key theoretical debates within OB, Strategy, and OT; and 4) inspire new scholarship by developing an agenda for future research. PSFs exercise a key influence in the broader functioning of the capitalistic system. They play an important role in developing human capital, creating innovative business services, and setting the legal and accounting standards that support economic activity. Traditional management models offer only limited insight into the complex interpersonal and organizational dynamics that operate within PSFs. Their diffuse and decentred power structures, highly embedded practices, mobile workforces and experiential nature of their work renders PSFs distinctive and limits the relevance of many traditional OT, Str...

Although the field of strategic HRM has rapidly expanded within a short period of time, there is still a great deal that remains unknown. While substantial research suggests that strategic HRM posi...

Taking into account the relevant mediating and moderating variables is very important to understanding the link between strategy process and firm performance (Rajagopalan et al., 1993). This resear...

Intuition can produce effective strategic decisions because of its speed and ability to solve less-structured problems. Despite this, there are only a very small number of empirical studies that have examined intuition in the strategic decision-making process. We examine the relationship between the use of intuition in the strategic decision-making process, and strategic decision effectiveness. We propose that the expertise of the decision-maker, environmental dynamism and the characteristics of the strategic decision itself moderate the relationship between the use of intuition in the strategic decision making process, and strategic decision effectiveness. We make a significant theoretical contribution by integrating the management and social-psychology literatures in order to identify the variables that affect the relationship between the use of intuition in the strategic decision-making process, and strategic decision effectiveness. This article builds upon existing empirical research that has examined intuition in the strategic decision-making process, and reconciles some of the confounding results that have emerged. The paper presents a conceptual model and research propositions, which if empirically examined, would make a significant contribution to knowledge in the strategic decision-making domain of literature.

This paper proposes an alternative to the classical feedback model of control. It emphasizes uncertainty and complexity as basic elements in strategic management. Strategic control is conceptualized as a feedforward process compensating for the selectivity of planning. This idea forms the basis of a 3-step model of strategic control. Some implications for practice are discussed.

This paper presents a model of the strategic process and briefly describes its utility for four aspects of teaching and research in the Administrative Policy field. The four aspects are: a comparis...

This paper attempts to provide an orderly description of how an organization's formal structure affects its strategic decision-making process. Literature on structure, the strategic process, and th...

Current research in Strategic Management calls for the integration of technology strategy with the environment, structure, and competitive strategy of business units. After a review of the linkages...

The interpretive perspective of strategic issues is extended by describing performance information and noise. A connection is made with the conventional perspective by recognizing that strategies, ...

Repeated calls have been made for a general theory of strategic management that will enhance research, teaching, and application of subject matter in the area. This paper presents a social learning theory of strategic management (SLTSM) that encompasses earlier attempts to explain strategic management and offers a distinctive conceptual framework. SLTSM links the interdependent elements of executive cognition, stimulus and consequence environments, and strategic behaviors, through reciprocal determinism, providing a unique perspective on strategic management.

Scholars in administrative behavior have contributed to our understanding of strategic management through (1) the study of organizations in the context of their environment; (2) the study of managerial action in the context of an organization; and (3) the study and development of methods to improve the strategic alignment between an organization's capabilities and its environment. The view of organizations as open systems, prescriptive and descriptive studies of managerial activity, including decision-making processes, and studies of relationships between strategy, structure, and performance are among the contributions of administrative behavior scholars to the field of strategic management.

This article presents a review of the book “Strategic Management and Business Policy: A Methodological Approach,” by Alan J. Rowe, Richard O. Mason and Karl Dickel.

This article presents a review of the book “From Strategic Planning to Strategic Management,” edited by H. Igor Ansoff, Roger P. Declerck and Robert L. Hayes.

The article presents a review of the book “Managing Strategic Change: Technical, Political and Cultural Dynamics,” by Noel M. Tichy.

The article reviews the book “Strategy + Structure = Performance: The Strategic Planning Imperative,” edited by Hans B. Thorelli.

This paper aims to present the findings of an empirical study of the policy-making process, based on detailed observation and study of new business development in: (1) a professional service compan...

In this article, I examine how the concept of strategy has evolved into the field of strategic management, A definition of strategic management is developed from commonalities of past definitions and a selected overview of approaches to operationalizing strategic management is presented.

This paper presents a strategic view of environmental uncertainty for profit-oriented organizations. It argues that managers make decisions that sometimes result in the aggressive creation of environmental uncertainty. A proposed model suggests that although strategy, structure, and performance constitute environmental enactment processes, the environment also directly influences organization performance. Further, the performance of others influences the environment through individual and collective actions.

Contributions from the strategic decision process literature are synthesized and integrated with literature on organizational structure. Propositions emerge that describe how the characteristics of an organization's strategic decision process are affected by its structure. Also discussed are the patterns of strategic process characteristics that are likely to be associated with different types of structures. Conclusions are reached on issues such as the accuracy of alternative models of the strategic decision process, and the appropriate unit of analysis for studying that process.

A model of strategic risk taking incorporating environmental, industrial, organizational, decision maker, and problem variables is presented. The model is intended to be both a preliminary conceptualization of strategic risk taking and a stimulant for future research on risk taking in strategic management decisions. Relevant research from a number of disciplines is summarized, and the potential impacts of particular variables on the propensity to take strategic risks are examined.