Behavioral strategy is a relatively new subfield of strategic management and yet its roots go back to the origins of the discipline. Its rapid growth over the last few years, the interest created in the research community, and the intrinsically diversified approaches call for organization of the intellectual structure developed by scholars. This paper aims to provide the intellectual structure of the subject based on the published research for the entire period covered by the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) Database. By using bibliometric and data analytic techniques, we determine the key works in the development of the subfield, the groups that determine the conceptual contributions and the bridging works that provide the common bond between them. To achieve this, we have used co-citation analysis to capture relationships. It is followed by multidimensional scaling (MDS) and a principal component factor analysis (PCFA) for displaying the groups of works that constitute the different lines of research. The study offers useful insights in the discipline and conclusions for future developments in the subject for researchers and practitioners alike.

This paper reviews relevant research from various disciplines: business stakeholders, behavioral strategy, and stakeholder motivations to propose a holistic and integrative approach to the discipline of business strategy formulation. The purpose is to propose a holistic view of the formulation of business strategies focused on fulfilling the emotional needs of business stakeholders and provide a framework for future research. There is an opportunity to develop successful business strategies by considering two dimensions: On the one hand, considering the motivations and aiming to fulfill the needs of all company stakeholders not purely economic return. On the other hand, among these motivations, emotional needs have an increased role particularly in the developed world were a significant part of the physiological needs are already covered. The article opens a new avenue for future business strategy research. By delivering socioemotional value to stakeholders, companies can complement the current economic based approach and create additional sustainable competitive differentiation.

Emotions are a better predictor of whether customers will return than conventional loyalty measures. Elena Alfaro, Santiago Urío and Gonzalo Martín‐Vivaldi argue for an emotional standard