This study develops a model of emergent strategy formation at a large telecommunications firm. It integrates prominent traditions in strategy process research—strategy as patterned action, as ...iterated resource allocation and as practice—to show how emergent strategy originates as a project through autonomous strategic behavior, then subsequently becomes realized as a consequence of mobilizing wider support to provide impetus, manipulating strategic context to legitimate the project by constructing it as consonant with the prevailing concept of strategy, and altering structural context to embed it within organizational units, routines, and objectives. The study theorizes the role of "practices of strategy articulation" in emergent strategy formation, and explains why some autonomous strategic behavior becomes "ephemeral" and disappears rather than enduring to become emergent strategy.
Research summary: At the intersection of Strategy Process (SP) and Strategy-as-Practice (SAP) research lies the focal phenomenon they share—strategy, which manifests itself in a variety of ways: ...intended, realized, deliberate, emergent, unrealized, and ephemeral strategy. We present a methodology comprised of three stages that, when integrated in the manner we suggest, permit a rich operationalization and tracking of strategy content for all manifestations. We illustrate the utility of our methodology for bridging SP and SAP research by theorizing practices that are more likely to give rise to unrealized and ephemeral strategy, identifying their likely consequences, and presenting a research agenda for studying these transient manifestations. Managerial summary: Managers know well that, sometimes for good reasons and other times with negative consequences for organizations, not all aspects of strategic plans are implemented with fidelity, resulting in unrealized strategy; and not all bottom-up projects receive the middlemanagement support they need to become realized, resulting in ephemeral strategy making. Surprisingly, however, these transient manifestations of strategy receive little attention in the scholarly literature. Our paper addresses this gap by presenting a methodology for tracking all six manifestations of strategy (intended, realized, deliberate, emergent, unrealized, and ephemeral strategy), highlighting the interdependent relations among them. It also describes strategy making practices that are likely to give rise to the two transient manifestations, i.e., unrealized and ephemeral strategy, as well as their consequences for subsequent strategy making.
While policy-makers understand the vast benefits of publicly funded and not-for-profit research, governance practitioners have the difficult task of defining processes that can best foster high ...performance for science and technology (S&T) labs not primarily driven by profits. This qualitative study develops a new taxonomy based on two dimensions, the nature of the funding relationship between the parent organisation and the S&T lab and the degree of interdependence between the lab's research units. We discuss the dynamics uncovered for each of the four archetypes with illustrative cases and argue that high-performance governance of S&T labs requires an internal coherence linking the processes of planning, funding and performance evaluation.
This case study uses multiple lines of enquiry to better understand how Nortel went from being a ‘global powerhouse’ at the turn of the century to filing for bankruptcy just nine years later. It ...tracks competitive intelligence as well as other environmental awareness capabilities of the company and theorizes on how they have contributed to its rise and fall. The findings suggest that Nortel was a company with significant environmental awareness capability in the early 90’s that had all but lost this competency by the year 2000, which impacted their ability to make decisions consistent with a changing environment. Through interviews with 48% of all Nortel officers that were there during the period of interest as well as other stakeholders, the researchers identify a two-layer typology that includes a set of cognitive factors as well as three broad categories of monitoring practices that can help companies better understand their environment: 1) formal external monitoring practices, such as competitive intelligence units; 2) informal external monitoring practices such as board meetings with members with industry connections and knowledge, and 3) internal monitoring practices with external insight capability, such as performance management reviews and accounting reports. Cognitive factors identified include decision maker orientation, as either technical or business, internal vs., internal focus, cognitive complexity and open mindedness.
This dissertation reports findings from an exploratory study of the formation of emergent strategy (Mintzberg 1978; Mintzberg & Waters 1985) in large and complex organizations. The study tracks ...autonomous strategic behaviour (Burgelman, 1983b), which is theorized and shown to be an important precursor to emergent strategy, using a single case study covering a period of ten years at a large telecommunications company. Building on Bower and Burgelman's model (Bower, 1970; Burgelman, 1983a, 1983b, 1983c), the dissertation develops a process model for emergent strategy which features four key components: project definition; mobilizing wider support to provide impetus; manipulating strategic context; and embedding within structural context. In addition, the study identifies four paths for emergent strategy formation by distinguishing between initiatives resulting from new ideas and initiatives resulting from the recycling of preexisting ideas from prior projects; and between projects for which "promoting" is an early priority versus those for which "executing" is an early priority. The study also identifies mechanisms through which autonomous strategic behaviour becomes "ephemeral" and disappears rather than enduring to become realized as emergent strategy.
Cette étude exploratoire analyse la formation de la stratégie émergente (Mintzberg 1978; Mintzberg et Waters 1985) au sein des entreprises complexes de grande envergure. Notre étude fait un examen systématique des comportements stratégiques autonomes (Burgelman, 1983b), que l'on théorise comme précurseurs importants de la stratégie émergente. La recherche utilise une étude du cas d'une grande entreprise de télécommunication couvrant une période de dix ans. S'appuyant sur les travaux de Bower et Burgelman (Bower, 1970; Burgelman, 1983a, 1983b, 1983c), nous développons un modèle de processus qui comprend quatre composantes, soit : la définition du projet, la mobilisation de bases de support élargies pour donner de l'impulsion, la manipulation du contexte stratégique, ainsi que l'inclusion au sein du contexte structurel. De plus, l'étude identifie quatre chemins pour la formation de la stratégie émergente en différentiant d'une part les projets issus d'une nouvelle idée, plutôt que ceux faisant appel à une idée préexistante, et d'une part, les projets que l'on « soutient d'abord », de ceux que l'on « exécute d'abord », L'étude identifie aussi les mécanismes par lesquels les comportements stratégiques autonomes deviennent « éphémère» et disparaissent plutôt que de perdurer dans le temps et se réaliser en stratégie émergente.
This dissertation reports findings from an exploratory study of the formation of emergent strategy (Mintzberg 1978; Mintzberg & Waters 1985) in large and complex organizations. The study tracks ...autonomous strategic behaviour (Burgelman, 1983b), which is theorized and shown to be an important precursor to emergent strategy, using a single case study covering a period of ten years at a large telecommunications company. Building on Bower and Burgelman’s model (Bower, 1970; Burgelman, 1983a, 1983b, 1983c), the dissertation develops a process model for emergent strategy which features four key components: project definition; mobilizing wider support to provide impetus; manipulating strategic context; and embedding within structural context. In addition, the study identifies four paths for emergent strategy formation by distinguishing between initiatives resulting from new ideas and initiatives resulting from the recycling of pre-existing ideas from prior projects; and between projects for which “promoting” is an early priority versus those for which “executing” is an early priority. The study also identifies mechanisms through which autonomous strategic behaviour becomes “ephemeral” and disappears rather than enduring to become realized as emergent strategy.
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