Spotlight on strategic management

Abstract

As this is the first bspotlight on strategic managementQ feature to appear in Business Horizons, it seems important to begin with a brief history of how the field developed before progressing on to an examination of current foci and future issues of potential importance. The field of strategic management has advanced substantially in both the theoretical domain and empirical research over the last 25 years. While the roots of the field can perhaps be traced back as early as 320 BC to the work of Sun Tsu, the evolution of the field in the last few decades has been dramatic (Hitt, Boyd, & Li, 2004). Recent work traced the intellectual structure of the field over the period 1980—2000 (RamosRodriguez & Ruiz-Navarro, 2004). Some of the most cited works represent particular perspectives such as industrial organization economics (Porter, 1980, 1985), corporate strategy-product diversification (Chandler, 1962; Rumelt, 1974), transaction cost economics (Williamson, 1975), evolutionary economics (Nelson & Winter, 1982), resource dependence (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978), and the behavioral theory of the firm (Cyert & March, 1963). While agency theory and transaction cost economics have played prominent roles in building our understanding of executive and firm behavior,