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1989 Journal of Management Studies
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.1989.tb00732.x
ABSTRACT This article explores the linkages between cognitive science and strategic management research. It begins by noting that Schendel and Hofer, in their classic work Strategic Management: A New View of Business Policy and Planning, implicitly assumed a cognitive basis for much of the strategy‐making process but did little to systematize a cognitive approach. Next, the article examines the foundations of modern cognitive science. Several areas of recent research that are particularly relevant to strategic thinking are reviewed. The article concludes with a call for a more explicit cognitive emphasis in strategic management.
Grösnhaug, Kjell; Falkenberg, Joyce S.
1989 Journal of Management Studies
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.1989.tb00733.x
ABSTRACT This article explores how a firm perceives its own strategy and that of its competitors. Findings from an exploratory, sociometric study covering both a period of ‘boom’ and a period of ‘bust’ demonstrated that firms and competitors differ greatly in their strategy perceptions. These perceptions were also found to differ from ‘objective’ evaluations made by the investigator. None of the firms studied was found to change their basic strategy in response to environmental jolts.
1989 Journal of Management Studies
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.1989.tb00734.x
ABSTRACT This article explores the cognitive maps of the dominant coalition of one firm over time. It begins with an overview of the cognitive mapping literature and discusses ‘revealed cognitive maps’ as one strategy for measuring managerial cognitive structures. Next, the revealed cognitive maps from one company over a 20‐year period are analysed for their fit with the company's environmental context. The data suggest that the fit between cognitive structures and the environment was less than perfect, and that decision‐makers both under‐identified and over‐identified certain environmental factors. These and other data are discussed within the context of a cognitive approach to managerial thinking.
Dutton, Jane E.; Walton, Eric J.; Abrahamson, Eric
1989 Journal of Management Studies
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.1989.tb00735.x
ABSTRACT Decision‐makers in organizations use dimensions implicitly or explicitly to sort strategic issues. This article compares the dimensions implied by three literatures and dimensions generated by an empirical study. While some similarities are identified, there are striking differences between what the literature assumes and what dimensions decision‐makers in the NY/NJ Port Authority use to sort issues. Implications for theories of decision‐making and interpretation in organizations are discussed.
Porac, Joseph F.; Thomas, Howard; Baden‐Fuller, Charles
1989 Journal of Management Studies
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.1989.tb00736.x
ABSTRACT This article explores how the mental models of organizational strategists determine perceptions of competing organizations and responses to competitive conditions. We first outline a cognitive perspective for discussing competitive strategy, and then use this framework to analyse the particular case of the Scottish knitwear industry. We show how the structure of that industry both determines and is determined by managerial perceptions of the environment. We conclude by drawing out a few general implications of our framework for research and theory on competitive strategy.
1989 Journal of Management Studies
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.1989.tb00737.x
ABSTRACT In investigating the concept of diversification and its link to performance, strategy researchers have tended to emphasize economic, technological, or market characteristics that distinguish or relate one business to another. However, by ignoring the mental maps corporate‐level managers use to understand and manage strategic variety among their firm's businesses, strategy research has failed to produce an overall theory that links diversification to performance. Although the literature has begun to reaffirm the importance of developing a cognitive concept of diversification, researchers have been frustrated by the paucity of methods that are suitable for operationalizing the subjective characteristics of managerial mental maps into quantitative and reproducible measures. In addressing this deficit, this article proposes the use of the Repertory Grid, a set of procedures that facilitates elicitation and quantification of top managers' mindsets towards the firm's mix of businesses. After outlining the theoretical and methodological foundations of the Repertory Grid, the paper defines indices of grid structure and content and demonstrates the utility of grid data for assessing diversification.
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