Keep the Conversation Going: Theory and Method in Strategic Management

As a relatively young discipline, the field of strategic management has not been as stifled as some other fields by what might be called a “normal science straitjacket” of established theories and methods. Instead, interesting conversations have emerged, based on homegrown ideas and drawing from numerous other disciplines. In the first few decades, these conversations shifted like a pendulum from an internal organizational emphasis to a focus on the competitive environment, and back with an emphasis on the resource-based view. This chapter demonstrates how many of the recent interesting findings are based on moving the pendulum toward the center, applying external perspectives to internal questions, and vice versa. The chapter provides examples of this phenomenon for a number of external and internal topics that are important to solving important strategic challenges. It also highlights promising research questions in these areas that have yet to be adequately addressed.