The intellectual structure of behavioral strategy: A bibliometric study

Abstract

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.

Guest editorial: Behavioral strategy: (re-) affirming foundations

“…Finally, due to the fragmented streams of research crossing the whole behavioral strategy area, a comprehensive systematic literature review of the behavioral strategy is needed. In fact, despite a recent bibliometric study on the behavioral strategy topic having just been published (Urío et al , 2022), it has not been pointed out what is “hot” and what is “not” in the field, if there are duplicates and inconsistencies among produced research outputs, a formal research agenda for producing research that is relevant for both theory and practice, and what the wider links are among concepts/theories. These issues are in line with the milestone piece by Powell et al (2011), who argued that the next step for behavioral strategy research would be the attempt to unify the field and its different “souls”.…”

“…Behavioral strategy aims to bring realistic assumptions about human cognition, emotions and social behavior to the strategic management of organizations and, thereby, to enrich strategy theory, empirical research and real-world practice" (Powell, 2011(Powell, , p. 1371). This field is solidly rooted in some key social and cognitive psychology assumptions (Cristofaro, 2017a;Abatecola and Cristofaro, 2020;Urío et al, 2022) of grandiose scholars, such as: Barnard (1938) with regard to his "logic and nonscientific reasoning"; Cyert and March's (1963) "behavioral theory of the firm" and concept of "dominant coalition"; Kahneman's "prospect theory" (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979) and "heuristic and biases" program (Kahneman, 2011), Hambrick and Mason's (1984) view of organizations as reflections of their top management teams; and Thaler's (1999) "nudge theory" and concept of "mental accounting". Above all, it is necessary to recall Simon's (1957) concept of "bounded rationality," which, when combined with the concept of strategy, can be described as follows:…”

From Behavioral Strategy to Emotional Strategy: It Is Time to Use Emotions as a Competitive Advantage

“…In spite of the growing interest in these new avenues of strategic management, few attempts have been done to develop and integrate them in the main stream of research. Behavioral strategy intellectual structure still has few common roots with strategic management and it is considered as a separate discipline rather than part of the main field (Urío et al, 2022). Corporate social strategy is still a discipline which is in a process of setting the basis for a model that can be used to integrate corporate social responsibility into the strategic management processes of companies (Husted & Allen, 2001).…”

“…The focus of behavioral strategy has mainly remained in analyzing the influence of cognitive biases in strategic decisions. The most influencing works on the subject follow this approach (Urío et al, 2022). However, biases are not the only factor in the complex world of behavioralism in the different actors involved in strategic decision-making and most importantly in the stakeholders to whom business strategies are addressed to.…”

“…The behavioral theory of the firm has had a significant influence in the development of organizational and strategic management theories (Gavetti et al, 2012;Urío et al, 2022). However, when the theory was proposed, it referred to the behaviors of individuals as part of an organization that contributes directly or indirectly to their personal, mainly economic, goals.…”