Will Strategic Management Succeed Where Situational Management Has Failed in Emerging Contexts?

The theme:“Strategic Management in Emerging Economies” is of great topical interest and relevance in a globalized world. From the point of view of a scholar this is a terrain rich with concepts to be addressed; for the practitioner, it is a terrain thick with problems waiting for redress. Let us recognize that the very fact that the practices and problems of emerging economies are seen as a fit subject for scholarly attention, rather than being a mere adjunct or imitator of the practices of the developed world, is a step in the right direction. Let us begin with our own experience. Many of you would have commuted to this conference this morning. What did you notice? You alternate between driving fast and driving slow, you pause a bit, you skillfully negotiate your way between, say, a bus and truck, and you ignore a few bumps on the way. In one of my papers I presented in McGill University, Canada, I called it “two wheeling on the managerial freeway” that is, the task of a private or public manger in an emerging context is very much akin to travelling on a two-wheeler or an auto rickshaw on an Indian road. So I suppose the overarching question is: Will Strategic Management Succeed Where Situational Management Has Failed in Emerging Contexts? I will address the question: What are the unique problems that a scholar or researcher of strategic management faces in her study of public and private enterprises in emerging economies? Do our accepted theoretical insights, developed in a predominantly western context, work in this new hitherto uncharted terrain? How and why is emerging economy research different from research in developed nations? What are the theoretical concepts in strategic management scholarship that may be useful to us? As a practitioner and policymaker myself, I will also look at how appropriate and adaptable are strategic management practices to the issues that we face in developing contexts