Strategic Management

STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

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Strategy development: past, present and future
Rainer Feurer and Kazem Chaharbaghi The dynamic environments of today require a more dynamic approach to strategy development Introduction
The amount of literature available on strategy development is vast and is growing at an accelerating rate. Despite the large amount of research on this subject there is no single definition for strategy development. As a result, a wide range of conceptual frameworks exists for the formulation and implementation of strategies. According to early scholars in this field such as Andrews[1], strategy is a rational decision-making process by which the organization’s resources are matched with opportunities arising from the competitive environment. Others, such as Aldrich[2], state that the environment has a strong deterministic influence on the strategy-making processes in organizations. On the other hand, proponents of the resource-based view argue that it is not the environment but the resources of the organization which form the foundation of firm strategy[3]. Despite the differences, all these frameworks have one thing in common which is that they all aim at maximizing the performance of an organization by improving its position in relation to other organizations operating in the same competitive environment. This, however, becomes more and more difficult as the level of competition in different competitive environments continues to intensify. There is a growing cognizance that in highly dynamic environments, traditional approaches to strategy development often do not lead to the intended results, and that organizations must move towards a more dynamic concept as the underlying conditions change before formulated strategies can be fully implemented[4]. However, the way in which a dynamic approach to strategy development can be achieved is not clear.

“Strategy is the skill in managing or planning”[5]. “Strategy is the primary... [continues]

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