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Business strategy and its quest for sustainable competitive advantage and success is challenged by external and internal change, which increasingly takes the form of radical discontinuity. However, emergent strategy models are rising as concepts and constructs, possibly impacting on the advancement of strategic management theory and practices: these tools are the business model (BM), the value network (VN) and resource management (RM). The purpose of this paper is to propose a revisited role for BM design, VN configuration and RM, with specific reference to strategy execution and monitoring under discontinuity.

The study builds its contribution on a theoretical framework (constituted by a literature review on discontinuity, BM, VN and RM), supplemented by two longitudinal case studies on companies which went through several discontinuities affecting their business strategy.

BM, VN and RM are the strategic tools through which a company executes its planned strategy. In addition, radical variations in: BM parameters performance; VN configuration and firms relationships; RM consistency with resources core status, resulting from an external or internal discontinuity, constitute a signalling “vector” of inputs to identify the discontinuity and activate a new strategic re-planning process.

By revisiting the role of BM, VN and RM, the study revives the theoretical debate on business strategy under discontinuity, and provides managers with a comprehensive model to concretely employ these three tools for strategy analysis.

Proposes some practical suggestions for the small business manager in managing the quality of strategic thinking within his/her firm. Examines current thinking on strategic marketing and analyses aspects of strategy formulation. Discusses the relationship between strategic marketing and entrepreneurship, both of which, it suggests are vital to the start‐up and growth of the small firm. Offers guidelines on competitive strategy while attempting to distill current marketing concepts into usable, practical business tools for the small business manager. Concludes that, for a small business to survive, it is important to develop the quality of strategic thinking.

The purpose of this paper is to depict the increasing level of environmental turbulence in the aerospace aluminium industry utilizing a case study to highlight success strategies. The paper examines the impact of the environmental turbulence of September 11, 2001 on the commercial aerospace industry and how a firm successfully re‐adapted its corporate strategies in response to the discontinuity.

The objectives of this paper were addressed through an examination of firms' strategy formulation and deployment methods. Furthermore, the incidence of strategic decay coupled with resilience of firms in the aerospace industry is discussed with reference to the September 11, 2001 event in the United States.

Aerospace aluminium suppliers have mainly concentrated their efforts in the development of high strength patented alloys in order to defend market share. The aircraft manufactures namely Airbus and Boeing are in the process of shifting to composite materials in order to achieve significant weight reductions coupled with greater fuel efficiency.

The work highlights how a company can use strategic resilience to adapt to the dynamic environment of an oligopic market dominated by Airbus and Boeing.

In the 1990s, demands for change in public organizations are reaching new and unfamiliar levels. The continuing fiscal crisis and widespread disenchantment with governing institutions suggest that traditional change practices that gradually adapt public organizations to their environment are losing credibility. Abrupt discontinuities such as severe budget cuts or the wholesale reassignment of a mandate are becoming more common. These discontinuous changes present public managers with an extraordinary challenge to transform their organizations. Managing such change requires different skills and techniques and will be a conclusive test of leadership. Develops a conceptual framework to help managers to think about managing strategic shocks that have no precedent.

As the business environment increases in its scope, dynamics and complexity, the task of grasping its changes becomes increasingly demanding. The increased availability of electronic data threatens to exceed the human capacity to cope with and assimilate them. This research aims to provide a support tool that would be able to contribute to a more systematic, intensive, extensive and faster scanning process than the human process alone. This paper serves to build the foundations of such a support system by giving a detailed examination of both the domain and the technology. It is presented in two parts. The first part analyzes the concept of strategic scanning and presents a comprehensive review of its context. It helps us to understand the complicated, interrelated phenomena and reveals useful observations that are relevant to the construction of the system. A scanning‐based strategic management framework is formulated, which guides the system design. The second part will introduce the fundamentals of software agent approach, examine its relevance in offering the needed support, and describe an agent system that is currently under development.

This paper aims to explore how organizational actors make reference to history and how they use historical reference purposefully in order to affect strategy‐making.

The paper draws on in‐depth case studies on two Swedish MNCs. Data have been collected through 79 interviews as well as participant observation and archival studies.

Organizational actors purposefully construct and use history in order to establish continuity in strategy processes. The use of historical references legitimizes or delegitimizes specific strategic options.

Two old firms with a clear interest in organizational history have been studied. Future research on additional companies, including young firms and firms with less interest in history, is needed.

The purposeful use of history can be a powerful tool for managers to influence organizational change processes.

Very little research on the use of history in business organizations has so far been done. In an interdisciplinary manner the paper introduces concepts from research in history to management research. Based on two rich case studies the paper contributes by outlining what role different uses of history play in strategic and organizational change.

Strategic discontinuities in growth and profitability over the past decade suggest that, for the most part, the traditional planning models employed by American industry are less than adequate. Indeed, both corporate planners and purchasing executives are beginning to recognise that corporate strategic planning must balance a historical concern for product/market decisions with an understanding of and an appreciation for those factors that impact on the supply side of corporate performance. Generally speaking, the purchasing profession has contributed little to our understanding of strategic procurement primarily because the practice and principles of planning have been slow to diffuse to the purchasing function. In addition, academicians have offered little guidance. It is clear that formal planning models either ignore totally purchasing‐related factors or tend to treat them as an after‐thought. Part of the difficulty stems from the fact that the planning literature separates strategy formulation from strategy implementation and the focus seems to over‐emphasise strategy formulation. Although it is useful conceptually to distinguish between the two phases of the planning process, in practice they must be integrated if organisational purpose is to be accomplished.

This paper examines the issue of core competency from the perspective of economic regionalization. It utilizes the concept of strategic geography and the studies focusing on regional integration in order to interlink with the concept of corporate regiocentric orientation. It is within this framework that the concept of core competency is discussed. Of particular concern is the question as to how the regional element creates opportunities and imposes challenges on the ability to extend, renew and customize core competencies.

The process of innovation is inherently risky and unpredictable. There is, therefore, good reason to plan strategically for the implementation of the innovative process within the enterprise. Such strategic planning may help to minimise risk, ensure that a return on investment in innovation can be made, and enhance corporate chances of long‐term survival. This is the first of two linked articles on strategies for innovation and their implementation. The purpose of this article is to examine the strategic process of planning implementing innovation within the enterprise. It does this by analysing some of the major sources of innovative opportunity open to the enterprise, and considering some of their practical implications; examining three practical innovation strategies which are to be found in both large and small enterprises; and by outlining some basic prerequisites to successful innovation strategies.