Abstract
Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) is a management concept which prescribes that organizations, rather than going head-to-head with competitors, try to create and exploit new market spaces, so-called blue oceans. Since its inception in the mid-2000s, BOS has become one of the most popular concepts in the field of strategy and one of the biggest buzzwords in the business world. This paper examines the emergence and evolution of BOS through the lens of management fashion theory. The analysis shows that the BOS concept exhibits several characteristics which makes it highly appealing to organizations and managers. In addition, the emergence of the concept was helped by a good fit with the zeitgeist in the field of strategy during the 2000s, which had shifted to a strong focus on theories and ideas about disruptive innovation and business model innovation. The popularization of the BOS concept can also be attributed to the backing of a powerful supply-side actors, and, in particular, the concept’s creators Kim and Mauborgne. While the attention given to BOS in public management discourse suggests that the concept can currently be considered highly fashionable, evidence about the concept’s use on the demand-side remains limited. Most surveys indicate that the adoption and diffusion is lower than would be expected based on the intensity of discourse surrounding the concept. Therefore, the current study provides some support for the view that supply-side and demand-side activity related to management fashions does not necessarily coevolve.
Highlights
The analysis in the previous section shows that Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) exhibits several of the characteristics of popular management concepts identified in previous research (Benders and Van Veen 2001; Huczynski 1992; Røvik 2002)
For a concept to “take off,” it needs the support of supply-side actors who are able to create awareness and gin up interest among potential adopters of the concept. This will entice new supply-side actors to jump on the bandwagon and create concept-specific products and services. Such complementary products and services will help in the implementation and application of the concept and increase the likelihood that the fashion will become institutionalized as an organizational practice (Klincewicz 2006; Perkmann and Spicer 2008)
Business schools closely associated with Kim and Renée Mauborgne (KM) have played a key role in driving the popularization and institutionalization of BOS
Summary
Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) is a strategy concept which was introduced in the mid-2000s by. W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne (KM), professors at the well-regarded business school INSEAD (Kim and Mauborgne 2004, 2005b). The BOS concept was presented as a radical shift from the conventional paradigm and ways of thinking in the field of strategic management over the last few decades. According to Denning (2017a), KM started a “revolution” in the field of strategy. The main idea behind BOS is rather simple. Instead of trying to outcompete competitors in established and crowded market spaces (“red oceans” where shark-like competitors bloody the waters), KM suggest that organizations should seek out uncontested market spaces, so-called “blue oceans”
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