No abstract

It is commonly asserted that the field of strategic management is fragmented and lacks a coherent identity. This skepticism, however, is paradoxically at odds with the great success that strategic management has enjoyed. How might one explain this paradox? We seek answers to this question by relying first on a large‐scale survey of strategic management scholars from which we derive an implicit consensual definition of the field—as tacitly held by its members. We then supplement this implicit definition with an examination of the espoused definitions of the field obtained from a group of boundary‐spanning scholars. Our findings suggest that strategic management's success as a field emerges from an underlying consensus that enables it to attract multiple perspectives, while still maintaining its coherent distinctiveness. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

No abstract

a b s t r a c tThis study investigates how strategic leaders influence knowledge stocks and manufacturing improvements in firms. In doing so, we identify two related but distinct problem-solving orientations among senior executives. The first orientation uses short-term remedies to control and contain the impact of a problem, which we label as symptomatic problem solving (SPS). The other orientation addresses a problem situation with the objective of developing new understanding and skills, and we label it as generative problem solving (GPS). We test our theoretical framework using two waves of survey data from a sample of metal casting manufacturers (metal foundries) in the United States. Our analysis shows that GPS positively affects both internal and external knowledge stocks, while SPS negatively influences internal knowledge stock. Knowledge stocks, in turn, facilitate incremental and radical manufacturing improvements. Our results suggest that the two executive problem-solving orientations can potentially counteract each other in enhancing and depreciating knowledge stocks, and subsequently affect a manufacturer's ability to attain improvements both in the short and long termsPublished by Elsevier B.V.

Can ambiguous vision statements help to initiate strategic change? We draw on organizational and political concepts to make the case that ambiguity in the expression of future aspirations enables a sense of alignment between local and larger organizational goals that eases the political path to successful change. We also explore the paradox that, occasionally, the path out of ambiguity involves the initial injection of even more ambiguity into an already ambiguous situation. In addition, we demonstrate that consideration of a practical problem (how to effectively initiate strategic change) and a nonobvious recommendation (to employ an intentionally ambiguous vision) leads to a deeper exploration of key processes involved in the revision of personal and organizational knowledge.