Archive for August, 2009
Raising the Bar: The Strategy Research Initiative
| Nicolai Foss |
The Business Policy and Strategy Division is the largest and arguably dominant division of the Academy of Management. Strategy’s leading journal, the Strategic Management Journal, consistently ranks among the top-5 management journals. What is being done in strategy clearly matters to the rest of the Academy.
Strategy has a general reputation for being a relatively rigorous management field (whether this is well deserved or not is another matter), something that is often ascribed to the heavy influence of economics on the development of the field over the last three decades. And yet, strategy also exhibits a plethora of different approaches; there is still no agreement on the nature of the key dependent variables; and the field unabashedly employs key explanatory constructs (e.g., capabilities, dynamic capabilities, absorptive capacity, etc.), the nature, operationalization, and measurement of which are still unclear. It may also be noted that although strategy does rely quite a lot on economic reasoning in comparison to other management fields, the formal way of reasoning of modern economists seldom finds its way into the pages of the leading strategy journals.
Prompted, apparently, by similar observations and frustrations, a group of Young(er) Turks (“mid-career scholars,” to use their own words) has gathered under the banner of the Strategy Research Initiative. (more…)
Strategic Management Theory and the Financial Crisis
| Nicolai Foss |
We (well, in fact, mainly Peter) have blogged extensively on the current financial crisis. Guest blogger Benito Arruñada suggested that macroeconomists may learn something from forest management. In a recent paper Rajshree Agarwal, Jay Barney, Peter, and I suggest that macroeconomists may learn something from strategic management theory. The paper is forthcoming as a SO!apbox Essay in the November issue of Strategic Organization. Hopefully it will stir considerable controversy. Here is the abstract:
Macroeconomic theory assumes that factors of production in the economy are homogeneous and fungible. As a result, it is poorly suited for analyzing and developing policy responses to the recent financial crisis. Theories of strategic management and organization, with their emphasis on heterogeneous resources and capabilities, are better positioned. We provide examples of how macroeconomic theory may lead policies astray, and how theories of strategic management provide insight into the nature and causes of the financial crisis and the appropriate policy response.
Organizations and Markets 
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