Strategy is a pervasive and consequential practice in mostWestern societies. We respond to strategy’s importance by drawing an initial map of strategy as an organizational field that embraces not just firms, but consultancies, business schools, the state and financial institutions. Using the...

This research note examines the stability of diversification performance relationships in three countries (France, Germany and the United Kingdom), for two time periods (1982–84 and 1992–94). The aggregate findings, taking the three countries and two time periods together, support a general...

This introductory paper provides a background to the origins, themes and papers of this Special Issue on Micro Strategy and Strategizing. Our overarching argument is that, while the field of strategy has traditionally concentrated on the macro-level of organizations, it needs now to attend to...

The economics of mergers are doubtful — we know that more broadly, and the case indicates the same in the pharmaceutical industry specifically. Yet still big businesses strive to get bigger. We should look more widely than to economics for our explanations.

This paper examines the different growth trajectories of the personal computer, hard disc drive, and software sectors in Taiwan since the 1980s. Taking an institutionalist perspective, we emphasize the importance of institutionalized rules of the game in shaping economic behavior within social...

As European economic integration proceeds, this paper examines the integration of managerial elites in the major West European economies. It finds that top manager profiles in France, Germany and the United Kingdom have changed very little despite major internal and external pressures over the...

This paper examines the Chandlerian model of corporate development in the light of new data on the strategies and structures of large European firms in the post-war period. Conglomerate strategies continue to spread, but these are typically less stable than strategies of diversification. The...

This article maps the development of strategic thinking since the 1960s and identifies an emerging perspective on strategy as ‘practice’. The practice perspective on strategy focuses on strategists and strategizing, rather than organizations and strategies. Implications for practitioners,...