1b) Strategy - The Definitions

Question 1

Nag & Hambrick (2007)

Answer 1

PURPOSE: Define the identity of Strategy Management Research
METHODS: Inductive derivation of an implicit definition of the field (content analysis of words in Abstracts).
S1: Strategy experts rated abstrast as S.M or Not. Abstract then analysed and consensus definitions emerged.
S2: Boundary Spanners (Strategy Scholars that also published in marketing, economics or sociology) then were interviewed to revise the defn and categories.

CONCLUSION: Strategy research looks at:

(a) Intended and emergent initiatives (b) by managers (on behalf of owners) (c) involving resources to increase (d) firm (e) performance (f) in their external environment
- 311 citations

Question 2

Ronda-Pupo (2012)

Answer 2

PURPOSE: Define the Strategy Concept.
METHOD: Similar in their goals to Nag et al. (2007) except they focus on 91 explicit definitions of Strategy from 1968-2008 and use advanced methods. Performed a Co-Word analysis (bibliometric technique), and a social network analyses.
CONCLUSION: adds the words, “goals” & “rational”
CRITICISM: Was there any incremental contribution? (45 citations)

Question 3

Sharp(2013)

Answer 3

PURPOSE: How is Industry controlled for and operationalized in research?
METHOD: the replicate Dess, Ireland, and Hitt (1990) who
CONCLUSION: Controlling for industry effects if very important. More studies have recently begun to control for industry effects. One of the dominant ways to control for industry effects is to undertake single industry studies (45% of studies, up from 13%). However, there are lots of different ways that industry can be measured.
CRITICISM: They waffle a bit on advice on how to go forward (back and forth on whether to use standard controls like SIC or come -up with study relevant classifications).

Question 4

Priem, Butler, & Li (2013)

Answer 4

PURPOSE: Expand the current conceptualization of Strategy Research to include the demand-side (Value Creation rather than simply Looking at value capture).
** Move well beyond Implicit and Explicit definitions of the filed (Nag or Ronda-Pupo).
METHOD: Theoretical
CONCLUSIONS: cool thought experiment depicts a matrix of firms (on the left heterogenous raw materials, on the far right are heterogenous consumers). Firms form Value Systems (essentially Business Models) to move resources from left to right and transform or Create new utility through unique strategies.
- Zara Case

Question 5

The Pioneers in Defining Strategy

Answer 5

the term strategy derives from the Greek word ‘strategos’, meaning ‘the art of the general’.
- Drucker (1954) - management by objectives definition- Top Managers define objectives can understand what they need to do strategically.
- Chandler (1962) - “the determination of the basic long term goals and objectives and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals”.
Porter (1980; 1983; 1996) - What is Strategy. - Create a unique position in an industry (deciding what to do, and what NOT to do.)

Question 6

Industry (Definition)

Answer 6

A group of firm’s that are producing products that are close substitutes for one and other (Porter, 1980; Hitt, 2009; Sharp, 2013)

Question 7

Blettner (2012)

Answer 7

CEO —> Performance effect problem
2 problems:
1) Confounding of CEO, firm, & time (CEOs only serve on one mutually exclusive company at a time).
2) Is performance due to CEO or is it random walk (stochastic)?
3) Currently there is no grand model of CEO effects.
CRITICISM: Grand model is impossible (it is not possible to capture all the variables and put them into the model in one study) this is the nature of social science research.