Capabilities for strategic flexibility: a cognitive content framework

Different forms of strategic flexibility allow for reactive adaptation to different changing environments and the proactive driving of change. It is therefore becoming increasingly important for decision makers to not only possess marketing capabilities, but also the capabilities for strategic flexibility in its various forms. However, our knowledge of the relationships between decision makers' different ways of thinking and their capabilities for strategic flexibility is limited. This limitation is constraining research and understanding. In this article we develop a theoretical cognitive content framework that postulates relationships between different ways of thinking about strategy and different information‐processing demands. We then outline how the contrasting beliefs of decision makers may influence their capabilities to generate different hybrid forms of strategic flexibility at the cognitive level. Theoretically, the framework is embedded in resource‐based theory, personal construct theory and schema theory. The implications for research and theory are discussed.

[1]  Rajdeep Grewal,et al.  Building Organizational Capabilities for Managing Economic Crisis: The Role of Market Orientation and Strategic Flexibility , 2001 .

[2]  Paul C. Nutt,et al.  Flexible Decision Styles And The Choices Of Top Executives , 1993 .

[3]  R. Stacey.  The science of complexity: An alternative perspective for strategic change processes , 1995 .

[4]  P. H. Friesen,et al.  Archetypes of Strategy Formulation , 1978 .

[5]  Henry Mintzberg,et al.  The Structure of "Unstructured" Decision Processes , 1976 .

[6]  D. Aaker,et al.  THE NEED FOR STRATEGIC FLEXIBILITY , 1984 .

[7]  John W. Mullins,et al.  Situational strength – A framework for understanding the role of individuals in initiating proactive strategic change , 1999 .

[8]  Teresa M. Amabile,et al.  Assessing the Work Environment for Creativity , 1996 .

[9]  John Saunders,et al.  Management processes in marketing planning , 2004 .

[10]  J. S. Evans.  STRATEGIC FLEXIBILITY FOR HIGH TECHNOLOGY MANOEUVRES: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK , 1991 .

[11]  B. Wernerfelt,et al.  A Resource-Based View of the Firm , 1984 .

[12]  L. J. Bourgeois,et al.  Strategic Management and Determinism , 1984 .

[13]  L. G. Hrebiniak,et al.  Organizational Adaptation: Strategic Choice and Environmental Determinism. , 1985 .

[14]  G. A. Baker,et al.  EFFECTS OF DECISION MOTIVE AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE LEVEL ON STRATEGIC DECISION PROCESSES , 1992 .

[15]  P. Barr,et al.  Cognitive change, strategic action, and organizational renewal , 1992 .

[16]  Gerard P. Hodgkinson,et al.  The Cognitive Analysis of Competitive Structures: A Review and Critique , 1997 .

[17]  Liam Fahey,et al.  Toward understanding strategic issue diagnosis , 1983 .

[18]  Henry Mintzberg.  Strategy-Making in Three Modes , 1973 .

[19]  D. Teece,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT , 1997 .

[20]  R E Miles,et al.  Organizational strategy, structure, and process. , 1978, Academy of management review. Academy of Management.

[21]  Avi Fiegenbaum,et al.  Output flexibility—A competitive advantage for small firms , 1991 .

[22]  Barbara W. Keats,et al.  Navigating in the new competitive landscape: Building strategic flexibility and competitive advantage in the 21st century , 1998 .

[23]  J. Lorsch.  Managing Culture: The Invisible Barrier to Strategic Change , 1986 .

[24]  R. Daft,et al.  Toward a Model of Organizations as Interpretation Systems , 1984 .

[25]  C. Prahalad,et al.  The dominant logic: A new linkage between diversity and performance , 1986 .

[26]  D. Leonard-Barton.  CORE CAPABILITIES AND CORE RIGIDITIES: A PARADOX IN MANAGING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT , 1992 .

[27]  Stuart L. Hart,et al.  An Integrative Framework for Strategy-Making Processes , 1992 .

[28]  R. J. House,et al.  Organizations: A Quantum View , 1984 .

[29]  M. Shubik,et al.  A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. , 1964 .

[30]  Gustavo Stubrich.  The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization , 1993 .

[31]  G. A. Miller.  THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW THE MAGICAL NUMBER SEVEN, PLUS OR MINUS TWO: SOME LIMITS ON OUR CAPACITY FOR PROCESSING INFORMATION 1 , 1956 .

[32]  Richard Whittington,et al.  What Is Strategy and Does It Matter , 1998 .

[33]  G. Hodgkinson,et al.  EXPLORING THE MENTAL MODELS OF COMPETITIVE STRATEGISTS: THE CASE FOR A PROCESSUAL APPROACH , 1994 .

[34]  Robert G. Lord,et al.  Alternative Information-Processing Models and Their Implications for Theory, Research, and Practice , 1990 .

[35]  Beverly B. Tyler,et al.  Strategic decision models: Integrating different perspectives , 1991 .

[36]  Lívia Markíczy,et al.  A Method for Eliciting and Comparing Causal Maps , 1995 .

[37]  B. Chakravarthy.  Measuring strategic performance , 1986 .

[38]  Joseph T. Mahoney,et al.  / THE RESOURCE-BASED VIEW WITHIN THE , 1992 .

[39]  John C. Narver,et al.  Market Orientation and the Learning Organization , 1995 .

[40]  H. Simon,et al.  Selective perception: A note on the departmental identifications of executives. , 1958 .

[41]  Stephen Tallman.  Strategic management models and resource-based strategies among mnes in a host market , 1991 .

[42]  Beverly B. Tyler,et al.  Understanding the differences in Korean and U.S. executives' strategic orientations , 1997 .

[43]  R. Grant.  Chapter 8 – Prospering in Dynamically-Competitive Environments: Organizational Capability as Knowledge Integration , 1999 .

[44]  Jeannie L. Johnson,et al.  Market-focused strategic flexibility: Conceptual advances and an integrative model , 2003 .

[45]  D. Chambers,et al.  Strategic decision-making processes: the role of management and context , 1998 .

[46]  M. Hannan,et al.  Structural Inertia and Organizational Change , 1984 .

[47]  Charles C. Snow,et al.  A Contextual Model of Strategic Decision Making in Organizations. , 1977 .

[48]  R. Duane Ireland,et al.  Strategy formulation processes: Differences in perceptions of strength and weaknesses indicators and environmental uncertainty by managerial level , 1987 .

[49]  P. Schoemaker.  STRATEGIC DECISIONS IN ORGANIZATIONS: RATIONAL AND BEHAVIOURAL VIEWS , 1993 .

[50]  Howard Thomas,et al.  Theories of the Firm - Implications for Strategy Research , 1994 .

[51]  H. Markus.  Self-schemata and processing information about the self. , 1977 .

[52]  Liam Fahey,et al.  LINKING CHANGES IN REVEALED CAUSAL MAPS AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY , 1989 .

[53]  J. March,et al.  A Behavioral Theory of the Firm , 1964 .

[54]  James W. Fredrickson,et al.  Inertia And Creeping Rationality In Strategic Decision Processes , 1989 .

[55]  K. Weick.  FROM SENSEMAKING IN ORGANIZATIONS , 2021, The New Economic Sociology.

[56]  Joseph T. Mahoney,et al.  The resource-based view within the conversation of strategic management , 1992 .

[57]  Gregory G. Dess,et al.  Clarifying the Entrepreneurial Orientation Construct and Linking It To Performance , 1996 .

[58]  C. Lindblom.  THE SCIENCE OF MUDDLING THROUGH , 1959 .

[59]  G. Kelly.  The Psychology of Personal Constructs , 2020 .

[60]  Stanley G. Harris,et al.  Organizational Culture and Individual Sensemaking: A Schema-Based Perspective , 1994 .

[61]  G. Day.  The Capabilities of Market-Driven Organizations , 1994 .

[62]  G. Foxall,et al.  Cognitive Style and Personal Involvement as Explicators of Innovative Purchasing of ″Healthy″ Food Brands , 1993 .

[63]  H. K. Downey,et al.  Cognitive and Organizational Structures: A Conceptual Analysis of Implicit Organizing Theories , 1983 .

[64]  E. Johnsen.  Richard M. Cyert & James G. March, A Behavioral Theory of The Firm, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1963, 332 s. , 1964 .

[65]  G. A. Miller.  THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW THE MAGICAL NUMBER SEVEN, PLUS OR MINUS TWO: SOME LIMITS ON OUR CAPACITY FOR PROCESSING INFORMATION 1 , 1956 .

[66]  G. Day,et al.  Managerial Representations of Competitive Advantage , 1994 .

[67]  H. Ansoff.  The Changing Shape of the Strategic Problem , 1977 .

[68]  James P. Walsh,et al.  Selectivity and selective perception: An investigation of managers''belief structures and informatio , 1988 .

[69]  S. Kiesler,et al.  Managerial Response to Changing Environments: Perspectives on Problem Sensing from Social Cognition. , 1982 .

[70]  Sidney G. Winter,et al.  The satisficing principle in capability learning , 2000 .

[71]  William M. Pride,et al.  Environmental management:The construct and research propositions , 1994 .

[72]  David J. Collis,et al.  Competing on Resources: Strategy in the 1990s , 1999 .

[73]  A. Venkatesh,et al.  Marketing in a postmodern world , 1995 .

[74]  H. Thomas,et al.  Taxonomic Mental Models in Competitor Definition , 1990 .

[75]  J. Dutton,et al.  THE CREATION OF MOMENTUM FOR CHANGE THROUGH THE PROCESS OF STRATEGIC ISSUE DIAGNOSIS , 1987 .

[76]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  The myopia of learning , 1993 .

[77]  J. R. Moore,et al.  The theory of the growth of the firm twenty-five years after , 1960 .

[78]  Giovanni Gavetti,et al.  Capabilities, cognition, and inertia: evidence from digital imaging , 2000 .

[79]  J. Dutton,et al.  Categorizing Strategic Issues: Links to Organizational Action , 1987 .

[80]  Gordon E. Greenley,et al.  A Comparison of Slack Resources in High and Low Performing British Companies , 1998 .

[81]  Margaret A. Peteraf.  The cornerstones of competitive advantage: A resource‐based view , 1993 .

[82]  F. Damanpour.  Organizational Innovation: A Meta-Analysis Of Effects Of Determinants and Moderators , 1991 .

[83]  K. R. Conner.  A Historical Comparison of Resource-Based Theory and Five Schools of Thought Within Industrial Organization Economics: Do We Have a New Theory of the Firm? , 1991 .

[84]  Mark P. Sharfman,et al.  Flexibility in Strategic Decision Making: Informational and Ideological Perspectives , 1997 .

[85]  B. Chakravarthy.  Adaptation: A Promising Metaphor for Strategic Management , 1982 .

[86]  T. Mitchell,et al.  Strategic Decision Processes: Comprehensiveness and Performance in an Industry with an Unstable Environment , 1984 .

[87]  J. Taggart.  Strategy formulation in declining industries: A biology paradigm , 1995 .

[88]  H. Thomas,et al.  Competitive Groups as Cognitive Communities: The Case of Scottish Knitwear Manufacturers Revisited , 1989 .

[89]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES, WHAT ARE THEY? , 2000 .

[90]  R. Sanchez.  Strategic flexibility in product competition , 1995 .