Today, there is no generally accepted concept for the comparative empirical exploration of strategy processes. The paper proposes a methodological approach that combines a number of established research methods. The six-step approach enables the researcher to identify turning points in strategic change processes from the outside-in as well as allowing him to increase the effectiveness of interviews with key organizational informants. It is illustrated based on an analysis of Ciba’s and Sandoz’s strategy processes prior to their Novartis megamerger.

Response to environmental change is at the heart of firm sustainability. In the case of disruptive technology, previous research describes this challenge as a problem of commitment. Because disruptive proposals do not fit the criteria considered in the existing resource allocation process, they are denied organizational commitment. The following research seeks to address the phenomenon where incumbents do commit substantial resources, but then force those commitments around their existing business rather than find new markets. The analysis draws on extensive multi-level, longitudinal field data collected from a single revelatory case of a newspaper company as its management responded to the Internet. The conceptual framework for the study links the resource allocation and threat rigidity literatures. The data show that threat framing helps build impetus and commitment for disruptive projects that would otherwise stall. However, this same threat-induced action invokes a set of rigidities that prove maladaptive in the face of disruptive change. The research suggests that the role of structure goes beyond resource allocation. Structural independence creates strategic de-coupling of threat and opportunity framing, allowing the simultaneous management of otherwise inconsistent frames. Keywords: Strategic change, threat, opportunity, resource allocation, framing,

This paper proposes a model of strategic evolution as a sequence of intentional recombinations of the company’s Core Micro-strategy with new resources and organisational routines. A Core Micro-strategy is hereby defined as the established system of interconnected routines, micro-activities and resources that can be traced in most of the company’s successful strategic initiatives. The paper is based on two comparative case studies and the theories of evolution in social and cultural systems, intraorganisational ecology and the resource-based view of the firm. The model advances the existing literature on strategy process and strategy evolution by (i) incorporating a more direct and salient role of managerial leadership within processes of strategic evolution, (ii) incorporating a central role for micro-level processes through which management can directly and intentionally shape strategic evolution, and (iii) proposing recent developments in the resource-based view of the firm as the most suitable theoretical framework to explain the processes in which strategic evolution is rooted. The paper describes the empirical evidence which emerges from cross-analysis of the two case studies; the two descriptive models of strategy evolution inductively built on the cases; the theoretical model resulting from an iteration between the two grounded models and the theoretical frameworks. 1 THE ROLE OF MICRO-STRATEGIES IN THE ENGINEERING OF FIRM EVOLUTION

This paper is work in progress and I am thankful for any comments and suggestions regarding it. Errors and omissions might remain in the paper and the intention is not to implicate any of them to the many scholars that have moved the field forward. Please do not quote without prior permission from the author. This paper examines how managers create and develop strategy in practice. It reports findings of an in-depth investigation of managerial activities and associated learning dynamics in strategy creation, the generation and development of radically new strategies. Managerial and learning activities on different organizational levels, their influence on strategy development, and relationship to strategic change are examined. A dual longitudinal case methodology, including a single in-depth case study combined with a multiple retrospective case study is used, involving four multinational companies. The findings show a twofold character of strategy creation including an adaptive and a creative strategy motor of strategic change involving fundamentally different learning dynamics, reflecting their diverse location and social embeddedness. Adaptive learning dynamics were based on exploitation and refinement of prevailing industry and resource structures and involved a deductive reasoning or sensemaking as regards strategy, including knowledge assimilation activities such as formal intelligence and routine experiences. Creative learning dynamics evolved in the periphery of the organizations and were more remote from existing values and beliefs. They predominantly involved exploration and inductive sensemaking, including activities like informal noticing and creative experiments. The exploration/exploitation trade off interaction between the two strategy motors resulted in tension, which finally triggered strategic change.

express our thanks to the participants in seminars at the University of Gallen and the European Business School in 2003 for their helpful and supportive comments. We owe gratitude to the senior management of Novartis S.A. for their encouragement and the time they took to discuss our data with them. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Novartis S.A. or any other organization. The two authors are listed in alphabetical order. They have contributed equally to the paper. Ident. no.10654 ANTECEDENTS OF CONSISTENCY BETWEEN RESOURCE ALLOCATION DECISIONS AND CORPORATE STRATEGY CONCEPT This paper investigates the antecedents of consistency between corporate strategy concept and individual resource allocation decisions in the Swiss pharmaceutical companies Ciba and Sandoz from 1989 through their merger to form Novartis in 1996. We present a model from which we derive hypotheses regarding the influence of organizational and decision-specific factors on consistency. We test these hypotheses using data on 493 resource allocation decisions, applying maximum likelihood ordered logit estimation. Results indicate that factors specific to individual