Dynamic strategic thinking

Market analysts and marketing strategists stress understanding the fundamental dynamics of a market, but how deeply do they think about the interplay of such fundamentals and what frameworks do they use in such thinking? How do business schools teach managers to think this way? The premise of this article is that in their strategizing, senior marketing executives, boards of directors, consultants, and financial analysts should see the market and the firm’s embeddedness in a market as a moving video rather than a static snapshot. The authors propose that what makes the video move are fundamental feedback effects that create the evolutionary paths that a market and a firm may travel. A taxonomy of systemic feedback regularities is presented with applications that demonstrate how the taxonomy and proposed soft mapping techniques can be use to construct dynamic mental models that help managers and consultants improve their dynamic strategic thinking and the strategic foresight of firms.

[1]  W. Powell,et al.  The iron cage revisited institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields , 1983 .

[2]  Mary W. Sullivan.  Measuring Image Spillovers in Umbrella-Branded Products , 1990 .

[3]  Peter R. Dickson,et al.  Competitive price-cutting momentum and pricing reactions , 1991 .

[4]  P. Schoemaker.  Scenario Planning: A Tool for Strategic Thinking , 1995 .

[5]  Raymond P. Fisk,et al.  Theory construction in marketing : some thoughts on thinking , 1984 .

[6]  Erik Johnsen,et al.  Jay W. Forrester: Industrial Dynamics. The M. I. T. Pres. Massachusetts Intistute of Technology and John Wiley & Sons Inc. New York, 1961, 464 sider. , 1962 .

[7]  Robert E. Hoskisson,et al.  BOARD OF DIRECTOR INVOLVEMENT IN RESTRUCTURING: THE EFFECTS OF BOARD VERSUS MANAGERIAL CONTROLS , 1993 .

[8]  Willem Verbeke,et al.  Path Dependencies and the Long-term Effects of Routinized Marketing Decisions , 2008 .

[9]  Peter R. Dickson,et al.  Toward a General Theory of Competitive Rationality , 1992 .

[10]  William W. Alberts,et al.  The Experience Curve Doctrine Reconsidered , 1989 .

[11]  L. Argote.  Organizational Learning: Creating, Retaining and Transferring Knowledge , 1999 .

[12]  J. Forrester.  Industrial Dynamics , 1997 .

[13]  Gerard J. Tellis,et al.  First to Market, First to Fail? Real Causes of Enduring Market Leadership , 2006 .

[14]  P. Senge.  THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE , 1997 .

[15]  Richard N. Langlois,et al.  Cognition and Capabilities: Opportunities Seized and Missed in the History of the Computer Industry , 1994 .

[16]  Gary Davies,et al.  Case Study A , 1990 .

[17]  Massimo Scanziani,et al.  Competing on the edge , 2002, Trends in Neurosciences.

[18]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  Co-Evolution of Capabilities and Industry: The Evolution of Mutual Fund Processing , 1994 .

[19]  Kim B. Clark,et al.  Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of , 1990 .

[20]  Stanley F. Slater,et al.  Intelligence generation and superior customer value , 2000 .

[21]  M. Kotabe,et al.  The role of strategic alliances in high‐technology new product development , 1995 .

[22]  T. P. Wright,et al.  Factors affecting the cost of airplanes , 1936 .

[23]  G. Tellis,et al.  Will & Vision: How Latecomers Grow to Dominate Markets , 2001 .

[24]  R. Pascale.  Surfing the Edge of Chaos , 2000 .

[25]  Henry Mintzberg,et al.  Reflecting on the Strategy Process , 1999 .

[26]  Roland Soong,et al.  Threshold models of interpersonal effects in consumer demand , 1986 .

[27]  G. Hamel.  Strategy Innovation and the Quest for Value , 1998 .

[28]  S. Winter,et al.  An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change.by Richard R. Nelson; Sidney G. Winter , 1987 .

[29]  W. Hamilton,et al.  The evolution of cooperation. , 1984, Science.

[30]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  On the behavioral and rational foundations of economic dynamics , 1984 .

[31]  Paul J. H. Schoemaker,et al.  Strategy, Complexity, and Economic Rent , 1990 .

[32]  T. P. Hughes,et al.  The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology , 1989 .

[33]  A. Alchian.  Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory , 1950, Journal of Political Economy.

[34]  Elizabeth C. Hirschman,et al.  Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases , 1974, Science.

[35]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING AND INNOVATION , 1990 .

[36]  P. Romer.  Increasing Returns and Long-Run Growth , 1986, Journal of Political Economy.

[37]  Eric D. Beinhocker.  Robust Adaptive Strategies , 1999 .

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

[39]  J. E. Butler,et al.  The History of Progress Functions as a Managerial Technology , 1984, Business History Review.

[40]  David J. Teece,et al.  Capturing Value from Technological Innovation: Integration, Strategic Partnering, and Licensing Decisions , 1988 .

[41]  W. Arthur,et al.  Increasing returns and the new world of business. , 1996, Harvard business review.

[42]  E. Hatfield,et al.  Emotional Contagion , 1995 .

[43]  S. Winter,et al.  An evolutionary theory of economic change , 1983 .

[44]  E. Kelly.  The Living Company: Habits for Survival in a Turbulent Business Environment , 1997 .

[45]  Mark R. Killingsworth,et al.  Toward a General Theory of Teeth , 1977 .

[46]  F. Hayek.  New studies in philosophy, politics, economics, and the history of ideas , 1978 .

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

[48]  Matt Ridley.  The Red Queen , 2000 .

[49]  David M. McCutcheon,et al.  A Leveraged Learning Network , 1998 .

[50]  A. Tversky,et al.  The simulation heuristic , 1982 .

[51]  Kenneth L. Bernhardt,et al.  Comments on Christian Grönroos' Strategic management and marketing in the service sector , 1984 .

[52]  I. Mitroff,et al.  A Study of Spirituality in the Workplace , 1999 .

[53]  Peter R. Dickson,et al.  The Static and Dynamic Mechanics of Competition: A Comment on Hunt and Morgan's Comparative Advantage Theory , 1996 .

[54]  Clayton M. Christensen,et al.  Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave , 1995 .

[55]  W. Arthur,et al.  The Economy as an Evolving Complex System II , 1988 .

[56]  Werner Z. Hirsch,et al.  Manufacturing Progress Functions , 1952 .

[57]  P. Schoemaker,et al.  Strategic assets and organizational rent , 1993 .

[58]  H. Simon,et al.  Rational Decision Making in Business Organizations , 1978 .

[59]  L. Argote.  Group and organizational learning curves: Individual, system and environmental components , 1993 .

[60]  W. Arthur,et al.  Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy , 1996 .

[61]  S. Jayachandran,et al.  Marketing strategy: An assessment of the state of the field and outlook , 1999 .

[62]  R. Solow.  Learning from ‘Learning by Doing’ , 1997 .

[63]  D. Kahneman,et al.  Timid choices and bold forecasts: a cognitive perspective on risk taking , 1993 .

[64]  Pamela R. Haunschild,et al.  Modes of Interorganizational Imitation: The Effects of Outcome Salience and Uncertainty , 1997 .

[65]  Joseph F. Porac,et al.  Technological innovation: Local rationality, global blunders, and the boundaries of technological choice: Lessons from IBM and DOS , 1997 .

[66]  K. Jantke.  Planning for Learning , 2020, The Power of Assessment for Learning: Twenty Years of Research and Practice in UK and US Classrooms.

[67]  R. Westrum.  The Social Construction of Technological Systems , 1989 .

[68]  E. Rogers,et al.  Diffusion of innovations , 1964, Encyclopedia of Sport Management.

[69]  Dale A. Stirling,et al.  Information rules , 2003, SGMD.

[70]  Robert D. Winsor,et al.  Marketing under conditions of chaos: Percolation metaphors and models , 1995 .

[71]  Rashi Glazer.  Marketing in an Information-Intensive Environment: Strategic Implications of Knowledge as an Asset , 1991 .

[72]  Nathan Rosenberg,et al.  Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics , 1984 .

[73]  Robert M. Solow,et al.  Perspectives on Growth Theory , 1994 .

[74]  Daniel Kahneman,et al.  Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability , 1973 .

[75]  N. Latronico,et al.  [Modern times]. , 1999, Minerva pediatrica.

[76]  P. Varadarajan.  Strategy content and process perspectives revisited , 1999 .