Building Strategy from the Middle : Reconceptualizing Strategy Process

by Steven W. Floyd

• ISBN13: 9780761906452
• ISBN10: 0761906452
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-03-15
• Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc

Summary

This ground-breaking book reframes the perspective taken in most strategy research in two key ways, by describing organizational renewal from a middle-level perspective and by reconceptualizing the theoretical basis for strategy process research Part One reviews the existing literature in the strategy process, including recent literature on strategic renewal. Part Two builds the theoretical basis for a middle level perspective, focusing on knowledge development, social network analysis and organizational trust. Part Three moves from synthesizing existing research toward the development of a model for conducting research from a middle-level perspective.

Author Biography

Steven W. Floyd is Associate Professor and Lawrence J. Ackerman Scholar of Management at the University of Connecticut. Bill Wooldridge is Associate Professor of Strategic Management in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction: Rationale and Timing of the Book	xiii
Purpose: A Trojan Horse	xiv
Why a ``Middle-Level Perspective''?	xvi
An Emerging View of the Strategic Renewal Process	xvii
Overview of the Book	xxii
PART I: FOUNDATIONS
Foundations of the Strategic Management Field	3	(12)
Chandler's Strategy and Structure	4	(1)
Ansoff's Corporate Strategy	5	(1)
Harvard: The Concept of Corporate Strategy	6	(1)
The 1970s and the Emergence of ``Corporate Planning''	7	(2)
PIMS, the BCG, and the Search for the ``Laws of the Market''	9	(1)
Strategic Management: A New View of Business Policy and Planning	10	(3)
Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors	13	(1)
Conclusion	14	(1)
The Top Management Perspective in Strategic Process Research	15	(22)
Strategy Making as a Decision Process	15	(3)
Research on Top Management Teams	18	(3)
TMT Decision Processes	18	(1)
TMT Characteristics	18	(3)
Evolving Toward a Broader Perspective	21	(14)
From Strategic Decisions to Strategy Making	22	(3)
Autonomous Strategic Behavior	25	(3)
Strategy Making as Organizational Capability	28	(1)
The Evolution of Our Own Thinking	29	(6)
Conclusion	35	(2)
Toward a Middle-Level View: Developing New Assumptions	37	(30)
Rethinking Vertical Relationships in the Strategy Process	38	(4)
Resource Deployment and Accumulation in Strategy Making	42	(6)
Strategy as Accumulating Resources and Sustaining Competitive Advantage	43	(5)
The Concept of Strategic Renewal	48	(8)
Motors of Strategic Renewal	52	(4)
The Case for a Middle-Level Perspective on Strategic Renewal	56	(5)
Horizontal Analysis	56	(2)
Vertical Connections in the Resource Accumulation Process	58	(2)
An Alternative Set of Assumptions for Strategy Process Research	60	(1)
Relevant Literature and Conclusions	61	(6)
PART II: NEW THEORETICAL HORIZONS: ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE, SOCIAL NETWORKS, AND TRUST
Organizational Knowledge and Strategic Renewal	67	(20)
What Is Organizational Knowledge?	68	(4)
Objective and Subjective Acceptance of Ideas	68	(1)
Tacit and Explicit Knowledge	69	(1)
Definitions and Sources of Knowledge	70	(2)
What Is the Locus of Organizational Knowledge? How Is Knowledge Created, Transferred, and Integrated?	72	(7)
Managerial Cognition	72	(3)
Creating Organizational Knowledge and the Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm	75	(4)
How Is Organizational Knowledge Related to Other Resources in the Growth of Capability?	79	(7)
The Resource-Based View of Knowledge	80	(1)
The Knowledge-Based View of Competitive Advantage	81	(2)
Knowledge, Capability, and Competitive Advantage	83	(3)
Summary	86	(1)
The Social Context of Strategic Renewal	87	(22)
Social Network Theory	88	(2)
Types of Networks	88	(2)
Research Streams	90	(7)
Network Centrality, Power, and Influence	90	(3)
Social Groups and Individual Values, Attitudes, and Opinions	93	(1)
Weak Ties and Structural Holes	94	(3)
Trust: The Foundation of Cooperation	97	(6)
The Centrality of Trust	97	(1)
The Multidimensionality of the Trust Concept	98	(1)
Levels of Trust	99	(4)
Trust and the Political Nature of the Strategy Process	103	(2)
Trust as a Contextual Variable	104	(1)
Summary	105	(4)
PART III: A MIDDLE-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE
A Middle-Level Model of Strategic Renewal	109	(30)
Strategic Renewal as a Complex System	110	(2)
The Generation of New Ideas	112	(5)
Accessing Strategic Information	113	(2)
Reconciling Divergent and Existing Information	115	(1)
From Ideas to Initiatives	116	(1)
The Development of Emergent Strategic Initiatives	117	(8)
Interpretation: The Genesis of Emergent Strategic Initiatives	118	(2)
Issue Articulation and Emergent Social Networks	120	(3)
Elaboration and the Development of Emergent Routines	123	(2)
Ratification: Linking Initiatives to Official Strategy	125	(10)
The Politics of Ratification	128	(3)
From Divergent Proposals to Organizational Routines	131	(4)
Discussion	135	(4)
Research Approaches and Future Directions	139	(20)
The Midlevel Strategic Renewal Process Theory	140	(5)
High-Priority Research Issues	141	(1)
Research Approaches and Exemplars	142	(3)
Relationships Between Organizational Conditions and Strategic Renewal	145	(8)
Theory	145	(2)
High-Priority Research Issues	147	(2)
Appropriate Research Methods	149	(4)
The Renewal-Performance Relationship	153	(4)
Theory	153	(1)
High-Priority Research Issues	154	(2)
Appropriate Research Methods	156	(1)
Concluding Comment	157	(2)
References	159	(16)
Author Index	175	(6)
Subject Index	181	(6)
About the Authors	187