The Theoretical Logic of Strategy

This scholarly work critically examines theoretical deficiencies in the field of strategy, delineating their origins and impact on research and practice. Though it could be viewed as a broadside against the field for the way that it has developed during its first 70 years, it is intended to be an effort to nudge it forward, which will require major institutional reforms not just in how it evaluates its research but also in how it combines theories pedagogically.

The author contends that the prevalent publish-or-perish paradigm, successful in the hard sciences, has failed in building a cumulative understanding in the social sciences, including economics, which relies on linkages with others to build cumulative knowledge.

This book scrutinizes the consequences of using theory with inappropriate units of analysis, emphasizing the importance of justified expectations. Geared towards researchers, it contributes to the discourse on theoretical development in the field of strategy.

Section 1 Theoretical Constraints.- 1. The Theoretical Landscape.- 2. Non-compliance with Theoretical Requirements.- 3. Theoretical Analysis Simplifies Critical Thinking.- 4. Information as the Essential Element in Dynamic Analysis.- 5. Strategic Models Are Static.- 6. Theory Depends on Its Assumptions.- 7. Boundary Conditions Limit All Theory.- 8. A Systematic, Contingent Approach.- Section 2 The Economics of Start-up Strategy.- 9. Rational Expectations and Performance.- 10. Raising Funds.- 11. Constrained Systematic Search.- 12. Positioning.- 13. Estimating an Opportunity’s Wealth Generating Potential.- 14. Arbitraging Windows of Opportunity.- 15. Convention Theory.- 16. Forgiving Business Models.- 17. Cooperative Arrangements.- Section 3 External Environment.- 18. Macroenvironmental Analysis.- 19. Prerequisites for Industry Analysis.- 20. Porter’s Model of Competitive Threats.- 21. Threat Moderators.- 22. Moderation of the Threat of Potential Entry.- 23. Moderation of the Threat of Buyers.- 24. Moderation of the Threat of Rivalry.- 25. Moderation of the Threat of Suppliers.- 26. Moderation of the Threat of Substitutes.- 27. Summarizing Industry Attractiveness.- 28. Other Industry Models.- Section 4 Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.- 29. Value Chains.- 30. Firms as Resources.- 31. Assumptions of the Resource Based Theory of the Firm.- 32. SWOT Analysis.- 33. Using Constrained Systematic Search to Identify Opportunity.- 34. Focus More on Future Opportunities than Current Threats.- 35. Finding Optimal Opportunities.- Section 5 Business Level Strategies.- 36. Cost Leadership.- 37. Product Differentiation.- 38. Focus.- 39. Imitation Impeding.- 40. Opportunistic.- 41. Cooperation versus Collusion.- 42. Alertness.- 43. Constrained Systematic Search.- Section 6 Business Level Strategy Implementation.- 44. Organizational Design and Control Systems.- 45. Incentives.- 46. Span of Control.- Section 7 Corporate Level Strategy.- 47. Transaction Cost Economics Approach to Vertical Integration.- 48. Capabilities Approach to Vertical Integration.- 49. Options Based Approach to Vertical Integration.- 50. Corporate Level Diversification.

James O. Fiet is the Brown-Forman Chair at the University of Louisville.  He founded the entrepreneurship doctoral program at the Institute for Entrepreneurial Research and served for a decade as editor of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, while publishing more than 250 contributions.  He originated the theory and field of Informational Entrepreneurship.  Some of his books are: The Systematic Search for Entrepreneurial Discoveries; Prescriptive Entrepreneurship; Time, Space and Entrepreneurship, The Theoretical World of Entrepreneurship; The Entrepreneurial Solution to Poverty and the Science of What Is Possible; Informational Entrepreneurship in a World of Limited Insight; and Religious Doctrines and Their Influence on Entrepreneurship.