Cambiamento di paradigma, fonti del vantaggio competitivo ed evoluzione del concetto di strategia (Change of paradigm, sources of competitive advantage and evolution of the concept of strategy)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7433/s94.2014.03Keywords:
strategy concept, dominant paradigms in strategic management, paradigm change, evolutionary epistemologyAbstract
Purpose of the paper: This paper aims to identify the foundations of the evolution of the concept of strategy on the ground of detecting the evolutionary history of the dominant paradigms in strategic management.
Methodology: We use the evolutionary approach and evolutionary epistemology, observed as interpretative lenses effective in grasping the succession, integration and internal evolution of the dominant paradigms in strategic management.
Findings: The crux of the argument is that, the concept of strategy is composed by two fundamental parts: the core part, that is relatively abstract and permanent over time, and the peripheral part, that instead changes as relates to the sources of competitive advantage of the dominant paradigms. Actually, since its founding strategic management has developed around relevant paradigms, which have been the lighthouse for the work of researchers in the field. Four are the paradigms of strategy we present: (a) the Structure-Behavior-Performance paradigm; (b) the Resources-Competences-Performance paradigm; (c) the Knowledge-Capabilities-Performance paradigm; and (d) the evolutionary paradigm. Of each paradigm is detected its evolutionary paths, logical structure, causal relationships and specific contribution to the concept of strategy.
Research limits: Exploratory analysis of theoretical-interpretive fashion helpful to complement, with a range of empirical observations grounded in interviews to academics, executive and consultants in strategic management and with bibliometric studies.
Practical implications: We present a few intriguing trends on the change of the traditional units of analysis and the theory of competitive advantage that may have deep impact on business practice.
Originality of the paper: This paper contributes to management literature by shedding new light on the foundations underlying the evolution of the strategy concept and, in more detail, on the four key paradigms triggering the strategy concept variations.
References
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CERUTI M. (1985), “La hybris dell’onniscienza e la sfida della complessità”, in Bocchi G.-Ceruti M. (a cura di), La sfida della complessità, Feltrinelli, Milano.
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HULL D.L. (1988), Science as a Process. An Evolutionary Account of the Social and Conceptual Development of Science, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
HULL D.L. (2001), “In Search of Epistemological Warrant”, in Hayes C.-Hull D.L. (a cura di) (2001). Selection Theory and Social Construction. The Evolutionary Naturalistic Epistemology of Donald T. Campbell, State University of New York Press, Albany.
JAQUEMIN A.P., DE JONG H.W. (1977), European Industrial Organization, McMillan, London.
KUHN T.S. (1970), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
LAUDAN L. (1978), Progress and Its Problems, University of California Press, Berkeley.
MARCH J.G., SIMON H.A (1958), Organizations, Wiley and Sons, New York.
MCGRATH R.G. (2013), The End of Competitive Advantage, Harvard Business Publishing.
MERTON R. (2002), La serendipity nella ricerca sociale e politica: cercare una cosa e trovarne un’altra, Luiss, Roma (con S. Fallocco).
MORIN E. (1990), La Méthode IV. (trad. it., Le idee: habitat, Feltrinelli, 1993).
NELSON R.R., WINTER S.G. (1982), An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA.
NELSON R.R., WINTER S.G. (2002), “Evolutionary Theorizing in Economics”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 16, n. 2, pp. 23-46.
NONAKA I. (1994), “A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation”, Organization Science, vol. 5, n. 1, pp. 14-37.
NONAKA I., TOYAMA R., NAGATA A. (2000), “A Firm as a Knowledge-creating Entity: A New Perspective on the Theory of the Firm”, Industrial and Corporate Change, vol. 9. n. 1, pp. 1-20.
NONAKA I., TOYAMA R. (2002). “A Firm as a Dialectical Being: Towards a Dynamic Theory of a Firm”, Industrial and Corporate Change, vol. 11, n. 5, pp. 995-1009.
PETERAF M.A. (1993), “The Cornerstones of Competitive Advantage: A Resource-Based View”, Strategic Management Journal, vol. 14, n. 3, pp. 179-191.
PETTIGREW A., THOMAS H., WHITTINGTON R. (a cura di) (2002), Handbook of Strategy and Management, Sage, Thousands Oak, CA.
PORTER M.E. (1980), Competitive Strategy, The Free Press, New York.
PORTER M.E. (1981), “The Contributions of Industrial Organizations to Strategic Management”, Academy of Management Review, vol. 6, n. 4, pp. 609-620.
PORTER M.E., LIEBESKIND J. (1996), “Knowledge, Strategy and the Theory of the Firm”, Strategic Management Journal, Wnter Special Issue, vol. 17 n. S2 pp. 93-107.
ROTHAERMEL F. (2012), Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases, McGraw-Hill, New York.
RUMELT R.P. (1991), “How Much Does Industry Matter?”, Strategic Management Journal, vol. 12, n. 3, pp. 167-185.
RUMELT R.P., SCHENDEL D.E., TEECE D.J. (a cura di) (1994), Fundamental Issues in Strategy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
SALONER G., SHEPARD A., PODOLNY J. (2001), Strategic Management, John Wiley, Chichester.
SCHERER E.M., ROSS J. (1990), Industrial Market Structure and Economic Performance, Houghton-Mifflin, 3a ed, Boston.
SCHULZE W.S. (1994), “The Two Schools of Thought in Resouce-Based Theory: Definitions and Implications for Research”, in P. Shrivastava, A. Duff e J. Dutton (a cura di), Advances in Strategic Management, vol. 10A, Jai Press, Greenwich.
SCHUMPETER J.A. (1954), History of Economic Analysis, Allen & Unwin, Londra (trad. it., Storia dell’analisi economica, Boringhieri, 1972).
TEECE D.J., PISANO G., SHUEN A. (1997), “Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management”, Strategic Management Journal, vol. 18, n. 7, pp. 509-533.
THOMPSON A.A.-STRICKLAND A.J. (2001) Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, Boston, 12th ed.
YOUNG G. (1995), “Comment: The Resource-based View of the Firm and ‘Austrian’ Economics. Integration to Go Beyond the S-C-P Paradigm of Industrial Organization Economics”, Journal of Management Inquiry, vol. 4, n. 4, pp. 333-340.
BADEN-FULLER C., STOPFORD J (1994), Rejuvenating the Mature Business, Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge, MA.
BARNETT W.P., BURGELMANN R.A. (1996), “Evolutionary Perspectives on Strategy”, Strategic Management Journal, Summer Special Issue, vol. 17, n. S1, pp. 5-19.
BARNEY J.B. (1991), “Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage”, Journal of Management, vol. 17, n. 1, pp. 99-120.
BARNEY J.B., ZAJAC E. (1994), “Competitive Organizational Behavior: Toward an Organizationally-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage”, Strategic Management Journal, Winter Special Issue, vol. 15, n. S1, pp. 5-9.
BAUM J.A.C., SINGH J.V. (a cura di) (1994), Evolutionary Dynamics of Organizations, Oxford University Press, New York.
BOYD R., RICHERSON P.J. (1985), Culture and the Evolutionary Process, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
CAMPBELL D.T. (1974), “Evolutionary Epistemology”, in Schlipp P.A. (a cura di), The Philosophy of Karl Popper, vol. 14 I & II, Open Court, La Salle, IL (trad. it., Epistemologia evoluzionistica, Armando, Roma, 1981).
CERUTI M. (1985), “La hybris dell’onniscienza e la sfida della complessità”, in Bocchi G.-Ceruti M. (a cura di), La sfida della complessità, Feltrinelli, Milano.
CYERT R.M., MARCH J.G. (1963), A Behavioral Theory of the Firm, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (trad. it., La teoria del comportamento d’impresa, F.Angeli, Milano).
DAGNINO G.B. (2000), Conoscenza, complessità e sistemi di imprese, Giappichelli, Torino.
DAGNINO G.B. (2005), I paradigmi dominanti negli studi di strategia d’impresa, Giappichelli, Torino.
DAGNINO G.B. (2006), “Il paradigma evolutivo in strategia d’impresa: approccio controverso o solida prospettiva conoscitiva?”, Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 33, n. 4, pp. 103-132.
D’AVENI R.A., DAGNINO G.B., SMITH K.G. (2010). “The Age of Temporary Advantage”, Strategic Management Journal, vol. 31, n. 13, pp. 1371-1385.
DURHAM W.H. (1991), Coevolution. Genes, Culture, and Human Diversity, Stanford University Press, Stanford (CA).
EISENHARDT K.M., MARTIN J.A. (2000), “Dynamic Capabilities: What are They?”, Strategic Management Journal, Special Issue, vol. 21, n. 10-11, pp. 1105-1121.
EISENHARDT K.M., SANTOS F.M. (2002), “Knowledge-based view: A new theory of strategy?”, in A. Pettigrew-H. Thomas-R. Whittington (a cura di), Handbook of Strategy and Management, Sage, Thousands Oak, CA.
FAULKNER D.O., CAMPBELL A. (a cura di) (2003), The Oxford Handbook of Strategy, Oxford University Press, New York.
FOSS N.J. (2003), “The Strategic Management and Transaction Cost Nexus: Past Debates, Central Questions and Future Research Possibilities”, Strategic Organization, vol. 1, n. 2, pp. 139-169.
GAVETTI G., LEVINTHAL D.A., OCASIO W. (2007), “Neo-Carnegie: The School’s Past, Present, and Reconstructing for the Future”, Organization Science, vol. 18, n. 3, pp. 523-536.
GHEMAWAT P. (2002), “Competition and Business Strategy in Historical Perspective”, Business History Review, vol. 76, n. 1, pp. 37-74.
GRANT R.M. (1996), “Toward a Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm”, Strategic Management Journal, Winter Special Issue, vol. 17, n. S2, p.109-122.
GRANT R.M. (2005), Contemporary Strategy Analysis. Concepts, Techniques, Applications, Blackwell, Oxford, 5a ed.
HAYEK F.A. (1945), “The Use of Knowledge in Society”, American Economic Review, vol. 35, n. 4, pp. 519-530.
HAYEK F.A. (1988), Conoscenza, mercato e pianificazione, Il Mulino, Bologna.
HITT M.A., FREEMAN R.E., HARRISON J.S. (a cura di) (2001a), The Blackwell Handbook of Strategic Management, Blackwell, Malden, MA.
HITT M.A., IRELAND R.D., HOSKISSON R.E (2001b), Strategic Management. Competitiveness and Globalization, South Western College, Cincinnati, 4a ed.
HOSKISSON R.E., HITT M.A., WAN W.P., YIU D. (1999), “Theory and Research in Strategic Management: Swings of a Pendulum”, Journal of Management, vol. 25, n. 3, pp. 417-456.
HULL D.L. (1988), Science as a Process. An Evolutionary Account of the Social and Conceptual Development of Science, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
HULL D.L. (2001), “In Search of Epistemological Warrant”, in Hayes C.-Hull D.L. (a cura di) (2001). Selection Theory and Social Construction. The Evolutionary Naturalistic Epistemology of Donald T. Campbell, State University of New York Press, Albany.
JAQUEMIN A.P., DE JONG H.W. (1977), European Industrial Organization, McMillan, London.
KUHN T.S. (1970), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
LAUDAN L. (1978), Progress and Its Problems, University of California Press, Berkeley.
MARCH J.G., SIMON H.A (1958), Organizations, Wiley and Sons, New York.
MCGRATH R.G. (2013), The End of Competitive Advantage, Harvard Business Publishing.
MERTON R. (2002), La serendipity nella ricerca sociale e politica: cercare una cosa e trovarne un’altra, Luiss, Roma (con S. Fallocco).
MORIN E. (1990), La Méthode IV. (trad. it., Le idee: habitat, Feltrinelli, 1993).
NELSON R.R., WINTER S.G. (1982), An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA.
NELSON R.R., WINTER S.G. (2002), “Evolutionary Theorizing in Economics”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 16, n. 2, pp. 23-46.
NONAKA I. (1994), “A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation”, Organization Science, vol. 5, n. 1, pp. 14-37.
NONAKA I., TOYAMA R., NAGATA A. (2000), “A Firm as a Knowledge-creating Entity: A New Perspective on the Theory of the Firm”, Industrial and Corporate Change, vol. 9. n. 1, pp. 1-20.
NONAKA I., TOYAMA R. (2002). “A Firm as a Dialectical Being: Towards a Dynamic Theory of a Firm”, Industrial and Corporate Change, vol. 11, n. 5, pp. 995-1009.
PETERAF M.A. (1993), “The Cornerstones of Competitive Advantage: A Resource-Based View”, Strategic Management Journal, vol. 14, n. 3, pp. 179-191.
PETTIGREW A., THOMAS H., WHITTINGTON R. (a cura di) (2002), Handbook of Strategy and Management, Sage, Thousands Oak, CA.
PORTER M.E. (1980), Competitive Strategy, The Free Press, New York.
PORTER M.E. (1981), “The Contributions of Industrial Organizations to Strategic Management”, Academy of Management Review, vol. 6, n. 4, pp. 609-620.
PORTER M.E., LIEBESKIND J. (1996), “Knowledge, Strategy and the Theory of the Firm”, Strategic Management Journal, Wnter Special Issue, vol. 17 n. S2 pp. 93-107.
ROTHAERMEL F. (2012), Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases, McGraw-Hill, New York.
RUMELT R.P. (1991), “How Much Does Industry Matter?”, Strategic Management Journal, vol. 12, n. 3, pp. 167-185.
RUMELT R.P., SCHENDEL D.E., TEECE D.J. (a cura di) (1994), Fundamental Issues in Strategy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
SALONER G., SHEPARD A., PODOLNY J. (2001), Strategic Management, John Wiley, Chichester.
SCHERER E.M., ROSS J. (1990), Industrial Market Structure and Economic Performance, Houghton-Mifflin, 3a ed, Boston.
SCHULZE W.S. (1994), “The Two Schools of Thought in Resouce-Based Theory: Definitions and Implications for Research”, in P. Shrivastava, A. Duff e J. Dutton (a cura di), Advances in Strategic Management, vol. 10A, Jai Press, Greenwich.
SCHUMPETER J.A. (1954), History of Economic Analysis, Allen & Unwin, Londra (trad. it., Storia dell’analisi economica, Boringhieri, 1972).
TEECE D.J., PISANO G., SHUEN A. (1997), “Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management”, Strategic Management Journal, vol. 18, n. 7, pp. 509-533.
THOMPSON A.A.-STRICKLAND A.J. (2001) Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, Boston, 12th ed.
YOUNG G. (1995), “Comment: The Resource-based View of the Firm and ‘Austrian’ Economics. Integration to Go Beyond the S-C-P Paradigm of Industrial Organization Economics”, Journal of Management Inquiry, vol. 4, n. 4, pp. 333-340.
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2018-10-28
