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The Role of Micro‐Strategies in the Engineering of Firm Evolution

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  • Carlo Salvato

Abstract

abstract This paper proposes a model of strategic evolution as a sequence of intentional recombinations of a company's Core Micro‐strategy with new resources and organizational routines. A Core Micro‐strategy is defined here as the established system of interconnected routines, micro‐activities and resources that can be traced through most of a company's strategic initiatives. The paper is based on two comparative case studies and on theories of evolution in social and cultural systems, intraorganizational ecology and the resource‐based view of the firm. The resulting model advances the existing literature on strategy evolution by (1) incorporating a more direct and salient role of managerial leadership within processes of strategic evolution, (2) incorporating a central role for micro‐level processes through which management can directly and intentionally shape strategic evolution, and (3) proposing recent developments in the resource‐based view of the firm as a suitable theoretical framework with which to explain the processes in which strategic evolution is rooted. The model also contributes to the dynamic capabilities perspective by offering a microprocessual interpretation of their workings. The resulting view of dynamic capabilities suggests that they operate more through repeated recombination patterns of stable organizational factors, than through disruption of existing practices. The paper describes the empirical evidence which emerges from analysis of the two case studies; the two descriptive models of strategy evolution inductively built on the cases; the theoretical model resulting from cross‐case analysis and iteration between the two grounded models and theoretical frameworks.

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  • Carlo Salvato, 2003. "The Role of Micro‐Strategies in the Engineering of Firm Evolution," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 83-108, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:40:y:2003:i:1:p:83-108
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-6486.t01-2-00005
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    13. Aimilia Protogerou & Yannis D. Caloghirou & Glykeria Karagouni, 2014. "The relevance of the 'dynamic capabilities' perspective in low-tech sectors," Chapters, in: Hartmut Hirsch-Kreinsen & Isabel Schwinge (ed.), Knowledge-Intensive Entrepreneurship in Low-Tech Industries, chapter 7, pages 138-165, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Nicolaï Foss & Nils Stieglitz, 2012. "Modern Resource-based Theory(ies)," Chapters, in: Michael Dietrich & Jackie Krafft (ed.), Handbook on the Economics and Theory of the Firm, chapter 20, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Steensen, Elmer Fly, 2014. "Five types of organizational strategy," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 266-281.
    16. Jan-Erik Vahlne & Jan Johanson, 2017. "From internationalization to evolution: The Uppsala model at 40 years," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 48(9), pages 1087-1102, December.
    17. Claudimar Pereira da Veiga & Cassia Rita Pereira da Veiga & Mônica Maier Giacomini & Heitor Takashi Kato & Jansen Maia Del Corso, 2015. "Evolution of Capabilities in the Discovery Cycle of an Innovation in the Pharmaceutical Market," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 5(3), pages 141-153.
    18. Martha S. Feldman & Brian T. Pentland & Luciana D’Adderio & Nathalie Lazaric, 2016. "Beyond Routines as Things: Introduction to the Special Issue on Routine Dynamics," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(3), pages 505-513, June.
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    20. Vrontis, Demetris & Basile, Gianpaolo & Simona Andreano, M. & Mazzitelli, Andrea & Papasolomou, Ioanna, 2020. "The profile of innovation driven Italian SMEs and the relationship between the firms’ networking abilities and dynamic capabilities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 313-324.
    21. Kim, Sung Min & Mahoney, Joseph T., 2006. "Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR) as a Relational Contract: An Incomplete Contracting Perspective," Working Papers 06-0102, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    22. Matthijs Janssen & Carolina Castaldi & Alexander Alexiev, 2014. "Dynamic capabilities for service innovation: conceptualization and measurement," Working Papers 14-07, Eindhoven Center for Innovation Studies, revised Mar 2014.

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