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The purpose of this paper is to build on the configurational approach to strategic thinking – with the “écocycle” framework – to advance the understanding of the organizational life cycle. This integrative approach brings new insights into the dynamism of organizational life cycle.

This framework builds on analysis of the literature on organizational life cycle and extensive consulting and teaching experience with business executives.

The framework highlights the complex and dynamic nature of thinking and decision making in organizations. It suggests a spectrum of multiple ways of thinking over time, as strategy changes to accommodate each organization’s challenging environment.

The “ecocycle” framework progresses the understanding of organizational life cycle, by incorporating the diverse factors and features into a more unified, holistic and synthetic approach. The framework challenges the linear sequential view of organizational life cycle, and suggests the process of strategy development is not comprised of independent forms or alternative choices, but rather different business practices of organizations aligned with different stages of the strategic thinking cycle.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/09513559710156689. When citing the article, please cite: Louise Fitzgerald, Yvon Dufour, (1997), “Clinical management as boundary management: A comparative analysis of Canadian and UK health-care institutions”, International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 10 Iss: 1/2, pp. 5 - 20.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue of case studies in the enterprise diversity of wine business and to situate the wine business cases selected for this special issue, which feature a diversity of formats and approaches.

Rigour and relevance underpinned the choice of case studies for this special issue. All of the cases are informed by theory, and all share a common concern with the understanding of wine business phenomena and origins in or links to practice.

There is no consensus view on what a case is and what it is for in business research and teaching generally, and that this is appropriate given pluralistic approaches to teaching and research in the various business disciplines. Supporting this argument, the various types of cases encountered in the business literature are considered and an overview offered based on purpose, motivation, similarities and differences and common themes.

Each of the wine business cases presented in this special issue is situated within a typology, in which each offers a different approach to providing insight into the business of wine. The paper concludes with a discussion of current and future directions for business case studies and methods.

On 10 September 2007 the world was stunned by the news that Anita Roddick – the founder of The Body Shop – was dead at the age of 64. Everyone recognizes the success of The Body Shop, but it is not easily explained using traditional strategic thinking. This paper aims to shed new light on Anita Roddick's entrepreneurial and managerial flair, as well as on her legacy to the field of management.

Configuration as a quality is an intriguing and intuitively appealing new idea. The main innovation is the premise that organizational elements form common gestalts such that each can be best understood in relation to the other elements in the configuration. This paper probed the conceptual notion of configuration as a quality in an empirical sense by revisiting one of the classic Harvard Business School (HBS) case studies: The Body Shop International.

The paper shows The Body Shop as a good example of a comprehensive configuration that allows immediate intuitive apprehension of the new idea of configuration as a quality.

The main issue is the limited depth of analysis that has been achieved through the single HBS case as the main source of evidence. As such, although the propositions put forward seem highly plausible, the supplementary explanation still remains incomplete, opening opportunities for further research.

Re‐visiting classic case studies such as the HBS Body Shop International can stimulate the debate and fuel the process of theory building through the amalgamation of diversified old and new perspectives of the same phenomenon.