Purpose – This paper aims to offer a conceptualization of how and why corporate level strategic change may build on historical differentiation at business unit level. Design/methodology/approach – Methodologically, an historical case study of Nokia Corporation's drastic business model...

The notion that evolution is blind has somewhat hindered the integration of strategic choice to explanations of firm evolution. However, this article argues that it is mainly the Darwinian notion of survival selection that has difficulties in accommodating strategic choice. In contrast, another...

In this study, we analyze the Finnish retail industry in 1945-1995. Triangulating the major developments in society, technology, and firm-level strategic choices, we identified extensive variation in the sources of competitive advantage over time. We found that the structural and...