Search results

The purpose of this paper is to study the nature of the strategy formation and its impact on firm performance in relation to market development and product innovation.

The paper is based on an empirical study of 91 Austrian SMEs which covers a time period of ten years. Strategy formation was captured by an analysis of strategic intentions and corresponding actions in two surveys carried out in 1995 and 2003.

The study finds no direct association between strategy formation and performance, though, emergent strategists had less often a growth orientation. Taking into account industry dynamics, shows, contrary to our expectations, that companies which employed an emergent market development strategy achieved higher sales growth in stable than in dynamic industries.

The question of the superiority of planned vs emergent strategies has a long debate in strategy formation literature. The authors contribute to this question by investigating the role of different information sources for the formation of market and product innovation strategies and its impact on the performance in different environments over a ten-year time period.

Institutional work mainly focused on the purposive action of rational actors. However, the evolution of institution is not only affected by deliberate actions but also by emergent strategic patterns. Through a qualitative study of emergent aggression strategy in a Chinese leading private firm, Gome, this paper aims to explore the role of emergent strategy in institutional work. The paper finds that emergent strategy influences the normative and cognitive institution unconsciously and offers actors specialized identities. The present analysis also suggests that the emergent strategy-based institution needs a supporting and repairing system for maintenance.

This study primarily considers the micro aspect of emergent strategy and institutional work. It calls for detailed observation, interviews and archival materials which can make up a comprehensive in-depth picture. The authors remain skeptical to what people claim and try to get multiple sources of information. Also, the topic the authors deal with is relatively under-researched, and it is valuable to get explorative richness. Therefore, an interpretive qualitative approach is adopted to investigate actual events from “the native’s” perspective.

We found that an emergent strategy, which is realized but without previous plans, can also construct a “proto-type institution”, only in an unconscious way. The precondition is that the strategic resources of the focal firm are abundant enough for it to set the criteria of inter-organizational sanctions and rewards. In addition, the authors believe that supportive system and repairing system underpin the maintenance of established institutions.

First, by combining the research on emergent strategy to institutional work, the authors extend the scope of the latter by adding unconscious institutional work. Even if the agent-based view is adopted, rational actors can still influence the institution. Second, the authors explored the institutional outcome of emergent strategy, which fills the paucity of strategy process research. Third, aggression, the specific emergent strategy in this paper, can be turned into “plans for the future”. Its prevalence in the emerging market will attract more academic attention.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship continuity across projects among actors in the construction industry, and to discuss why and how such continuity takes place.

The authors draw on the results from four in-depth case studies illustrating different strategies for pursuing relationship continuity. The results are analysed and discussed in light of the oft-mentioned strategies suggested by Mintzberg (1987): emergent, deliberate and deliberately emergent strategies. Furthermore, the ARA-model is used to discuss why the relationship continuity strategies are pursued, and which factors might enable and constrain the relationship continuity.

The main findings are twofold. First, the authors found that the strategy applied for pursuing relationship continuity may, in one-time period, contain one type of strategy or a mix of strategy types. Second, the type of strategy may evolve over time, from one type of strategy being more pronounced in one period, to other strategies being more pronounced in later periods. The strategies applied by construction firms and their counterparts can thus contain elements of emergent, deliberate and deliberately emergent strategies, in varying degrees over time. It is also shown that the strategies of the involved actors co-evolve as a result of interaction. Also, the main reasons for pursuing continuity appear to lie in the re-use and development of important resources and activities across projects to create efficiency and the possibility to develop mutual orientation, commitment and trust over time, and thus reduce uncertainty.

Further empirical studies are needed to support the findings. For managers, the main implication is that relationship continuity can arise as part of an emerging interaction pattern between firms or as part of a planned strategy, but that elements of both might be needed to sustain it.

The authors combine Mintzberg’s strategy concepts with the ARA-model to bring new light to the widely debated issue of discontinuity and fragmentation in the construction industry.

Advances in technology, operations research, and data driven pricing and marketing are leading pricing strategy into new and untested waters – toward dynamic pricing, and variable pricing strategies, which ultimately require changes in how we view pricing strategy. The dominant view of pricing strategy is that pricing goals, objectives, and strategies should be formulated a priori, and should be consistent with marketing and corporate strategies – deliberate pricing strategy. This chapter argues that firms need to develop new strategic pricing skills that lead to more improvisational, innovative, or adaptive pricing strategies. I call this type of price strategy-making emergent pricing strategy. Innovative pricing strategies that the organization judges, or senses to be effective, are repeated, shared, expanded, and refined into successful pricing patterns that, over time and across situations, become pricing strategy. Thus, rather than specifically designing pricing strategy to achieve a goal, here the organization acts upon a price innovation that seems to make sense for this customer, this market segment, this setting, and this situation, then interprets the outcomes, signals, and reactions that seem to flow from the pricing action, and shares and encourages adoption and adaption by others in the organization. Emergent pricing strategy is particularly useful in unstable, turbulent, and complex product and market environments in which price-sensitive buyers wield significant power and influence.

The purpose of this paper is to find out if the approach to strategy-making taken by small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) affects their performance.

This paper reports findings from a longitudinal study of small Austrian manufacturing firms. It investigates their use of deliberate or emergent strategy-making and how this affected market development and product innovation.

When you think about strategy development, perhaps you think of long, serious discussions between groups of managers. But what if the organization is a small business? Leaders of SMEs do not have that option. So if an SME starts a new initiative – product development, say, or a change of marketing approach – how does this happen? Is it planned by the entrepreneur? Or – if you do not have middle managers with time to spend on strategy development – does adopting a “try it and see” approach give better results?

It demonstrates the benefits of a longitudinal investigation of the performance effects of deliberate and emergent strategy development.

It shows how the use of emergent or deliberate approaches to strategy development is linked to SME performance.

It highlights the benefits of using diverse information sources – including customers and employees – as an integral part of strategy-making to identify market opportunities and trends.

It covers an unusually long time period, enabling researchers to compare firm performance in stable and dynamic market conditions.

The purpose of this study is to identify the business strategies that entrepreneurs have formulated to establish the business with the intention of scaling up in the information technology (IT) sector in Chile, given that they have managed to scale up sustainably at an average annual rate of 73.3% and an average annual employee growth rate of 37% for four consecutive years after an establishment period of 25 months.

Three methodological steps were used to identify which strategic initiatives are relevant to the establishment of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on the path to scaling up. The first part consisted of identifying the literature and defining the research propositions and research questions. The second part was to prepare, collect and analyse the data to conduct the research by applying, transcribing, reviewing and coding the sources of evidence to explore how SMEs are able to develop strategic initiatives for the start-up process. The final stage was to validate the research proposal to identify potential strategic initiatives identified during the multi-case study.

As a result of the data analysis and empirical findings, three deliberate strategic initiatives were identified: staying engaged with customers, delivering successful business solutions and articulating social capital. However, in crisis situations, entrepreneurs readjust their strategies based on their management skills and an emergent strategic initiative was identified as securing the financial structure and revolutionising change. While this research was not designed to identify personal attributes, it did highlight the importance of adaptation and learning as a skill to drive the business model for scaling up during the establishment of their business.

It is clear that the study focused on Chile and cannot be replicated in other regions or sectors due to the characteristics of the sample itself, but it provides empirical evidence that there are cycles prior to scale up that need to be understood. The findings were empirically validated during the establishment phase, but the deliberate and emergent strategic initiatives that consolidated the SME to prepare for its scale-up process are not evident in the theory.

The IT sector will continue to grow and change after the pandemic, and the global economy will use more digital systems, creating new ways of working with the use of IT. This context will impact on SMEs where strategies, whether deliberate or emergent, will need to be part of the new business models, and therefore, caution should be exercised when using the results of this study. Public and private institutions should educate and guide entrepreneurs for the potential scaling up of their SMEs without having to wait 42 months, according to Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2021-2022 (Hill et al., 2022). Scaling up can begin as early as 25 months after establishment, breaking the paradigm of the theory that the SME must be established in a period of 3.5 years. This period cannot be generalised as business opportunities in the IT sector are faster. The research also contributes by reporting that contingency planning is relevant during the establishment phase.

Educational institutions and the public sector have made efforts to change business cultures regarding the importance of strengthening entrepreneurship, but teaching the emergent strategies that often challenge SME creation is not yet widespread in educational formats. This is a challenge not only for institutions but also for entrepreneurs trying to anticipate the constant changes in the global economy. This research provides an opportunity to create more dynamic business models with more conscious risk planning.

Although the literature has confirmed the findings, this research has provided a pre-scaling picture that links these two important stages on the axis of deliberate and emergent strategies. The findings confirm the importance of correctly embedding five strategic initiatives for the establishment of the SME if it is to continue on its journey towards business scale-up. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence in emerging economies on how entrepreneurs have found the right path to scale-up.

This paper examines the emergent and deliberate views in strategy making through, what we develop as, a sequence of thinking and acting. Combining the features of thinking and acting may enhance the organization's ability to achieve change, an ability that remains untapped unless it is accompanied by a change in mental models. Both action thinking emergent issues as well as thinking–acting deliberate issues may constitute triggering events, when contrasted with a previously agreed frame of reference. We develop a framework to show how thinking co-evolves with action in a succession of strategic activities, and within an agreed upon frame of reference. Our aim is to shed light on the circumstances under which deliberate or emergent modes take place throughout the strategy-making process. We claim that changes in strategic activities are determined by attention-triggering events, driven by both thinking and acting.

There is little information regarding how, or whether, small‐firm owners use their own and their management team’s skills and experiences as part of a strategic approach to achieving business goals, durability and, if desired, growth. It would appear that firms which do utilise a strategic approach, however informal, are more likely to endure. Design school strategic management techniques have traditionally been sited in, and associated with, corporate enterprises and, as such, would not be readily accessible to most small firms. Recent critics of this design school approach argue that strategic activity, in the majority of firms, is far more intuitive and flexible than previously believed and describe this as an emergent approach to strategy. If this is the case, it should be possible for most small‐firm owners and managers to harness their business skills, which evidence would suggest are likely to be intuitive, based on experience, and flexible, to develop an emergent approach to strategy. To investigate the proposition further, this paper focuses primarily upon strategic human resource management (HRM) in small firms, arguing that the efficient use of labour in small firms is a critical activity for such firms to achieve durability and if desired, growth. This paper will, therefore, briefly consider the debates surrounding design school and emergent strategies, examine the role of strategic HRM within the enterprise in some detail and then present empirical findings to illustrate these issues.

Using an Internet-based business simulation, we examine emergent strategy processes and their consequences in a competitive environment. We find that the emergent decision processes of management teams vary in the extent to which they entail forward looking, anticipatory thinking and experimentation, and the attention the teams pay to their organizations’ capabilities. In dynamic and uncertain environments, information search activities and decision processes are key determinants of organizational performance. Our results suggest that effective emergent decision processes necessarily include elements of deliberate strategy.

An essential requirement for tourism planning and policymaking is to review past strategies. The development of future roadmaps depends on a robust strategy validation process. The research analyses the technology strategies in Goa from 1962–2017 and highlights the impact of technology on tourism in Goa.

The paper presents a unique methodology that integrates tourism area life cycle (TALC) and Mintzberg’s strategy analysis framework to evaluate strategies at a tourism destination.

The findings show that most technological advancements have taken place during the period 1989–2008. Both deliberate and emergent strategies were identified. Development of technology altered the type of tourism practiced in Goa. The use of internet facilitated the growth of tourism.

This study clarifies the styles of public planning for tourism. It provides the foundation for strategic planning process.

Effective and efficient use of policy through technology road mapping can aid in co-creating a sustainable tourism destination for the future.

The strategic evaluation framework can be used in any tourism destinations to identify past strategies and assess its impact on the future.

The paper presents a unique methodology that integrates TALC and Mintzberg’s strategy analysis framework to evaluate strategies at a tourism destination. The research proposes a strategic evaluation process that recognizes past strategies to validate the strategic analysis process.