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Strategic Management and Strategic Leadership

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• International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications 10(8):914-918
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A REVIEW OF RESEARCH METHODS IN STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT; WHAT HAVE BEEN DONE, AND WHAT IS STILL MISSING

Research methods designed to study strategic management, are as varied as the theories of strategy that have been developed over time. From the purely quantitative methods with mathematical models such as structural equations or multiple regression models, even the purely qualitative methods such as ethnography, or direct observation. However, despite the differences, all these methods are intended to build theory about the strategic management. In this sense, the present paper, reviewed the methodologies used in the generation of knowledge regarding the strategic management, and proposes future lines of research on the topic and the methods used.

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This paper review and examine how strategic management researchers apply research methods, and what strategies use as part of the research process, to locate, organize, manage, transform, create, communicate and evaluate research tools, data and information resources. It also analyzes recent developments on research methodology to create scientific knowledge in theory building and practice in strategic management offering an overview of methodologies used in strategic management research. The assessment of strategic management’s research methodology is based on a review and analysis of strategies for the incorporation of knowledge of managerial research methods. Finally, the paper identifies and discusses some methodological research issues and reviews future directions on research methodologies in strategic management.

Anoop Madhok , Luis Angel Guerras-Martin

La evolución de la investigación en dirección estratégica: Tendencias recientes y nuevos caminos Resumen La dirección estratégica es una disciplina relativamente joven que ha ido adquiriendo su madurez durante los últimos 50 años. A lo largo de este período ha ido consolidando su personalidad a la vez que aumentaba la variedad de tópicos analizados y de metodologías utilizadas en sus investigaciones. Con el fin de explicar las razones del éxito empresarial-ventaja competitiva-, se han ido desarrollando diferentes teorías y enfoques que han ido cubriendo distintos aspectos de la investigación. Los autores plantean la existencia de dos péndulos que se mueven constantemente y que reflejan la tensión que históricamente ha existido entre la atención a los factores internos o el predominio del entorno, por un lado, y la tensión entre el nivel macro de análisis, la empresa y el entorno, o el nivel micro, los individuos y sus relaciones. La frontera de la investigación en dirección estratégica quedaría así definida por el movimiento simultáneo de ambos péndulos. Strategic management is a relatively youthful discipline that has steadily matured over the past fifty years. The field has become consolidated over this period, while simultaneously expanding the range of topics analyzed and research methodologies used. Different theories and approaches, addressing different research topics, have been developed to explain the reasons underlying firms’ competitive advantage and success. In this paper, we posit the existence of two pendulums in constant motion that, on the one hand, reflect the tension that has historically existed between the focus on internal firm factors and external environmental attributes respectively and, on the other hand, the tension between a more macro level of analysis, i.e., the firm and its environment, and a more micro level one, i.e., individuals and their relations within the firm. The frontier of research in strategic management is shaped by the simultaneous movement of both pendulums.

Business Research Quarterly, vol. 17, nº 2, pp. 69-76

Strategic management is a relatively youthful discipline that has steadily matured over the past fifty years. The field has become consolidated over this period, while simultaneously expanding the range of topics analyzed and research methodologies used. Different theories and approaches, addressing different research topics, have been developed to explain the reasons underlying firms’ competitive advantage and success. In this paper, we posit the existence of two pendulums in constant motion that, on the one hand, reflect the tension that has historically existed between the focus on internal firm factors and external environmental attributes respectively and, on the other, the tension between a more macro level of analysis, i.e., the firm and its environment, and a more micro level one, i.e., individuals and their relations within the firm. The frontier of research in strategic management is shaped by the simultaneous movement of both pendulums.

Luis Angel Guerras-Martin

Int J Manag Rev

Olivier Furrer

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This paper analyses 26 years of strategic management research published in Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly and Strategic Management Journal. Through a content analysis, it studies the relationships between the subfields of strategic management. A multiple correspondence analysis provides a map of keywords and authors, and a framework to track this literature over the 26-year period. A discussion of future pathways in the strategic management literature is also provided.

Jordi Menicucci

Journal of Management Studies

Charles Snow

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• DOI: 10.29322/ijsrp.10.08.2020.p104113
• Corpus ID: 221349060

Strategic Management and Strategic Leadership

• Gentiana M. Mjaku
• Published 24 August 2020
• International journal of scientific and research publications

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Article contents

Introduction, the strategic management themed issue, a future strategic management research agenda in jmo, strategic management research in the journal of management & organization: international in orientation with an australasian edge.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2015

Strategic management research and the work of strategy practitioners has a crucial role in furthering the well-being of society, helping to solve a wide range of business, social and environmental challenges (e.g., protecting bank savings, firm profitability, improving community health, creating interesting jobs, increasing the participation of woman in the workforce, protecting the environment). Since the emergence of the field of strategic management in the late 1970s, the depth and breadth of the field has greatly expanded as academics, business executives and consultants have set out to build and apply new knowledge to inform strategy work (Hambrick, Reference Hambrick 2004 ; Galvin & Arndt, Reference Galvin and Arndt 2014 ). Field-specific journals including Strategic Management Journal , Strategic Organization, Global Strategy Journal and Long Range Planning have played a key role in establishing a substantial research agenda for us to work on as a community of scholars. The growing knowledge base reflects the academics, business executives and consultants efforts to find solutions to the challenges and uncertainties of the modern business environment (Hunter & O’Shannassy, Reference Hunter and O’Shannassy 2007 ). As a consequence the global community of strategic management academics have adopted a wider range of research questions, approaches to data collection, units of analysis and analytical tools (Bettis, Gambardella, Helfat, & Mitchell, Reference Bettis, Gambardella, Helfat and Mitchell 2015 ). A review of Journal of Management & Organization ( JMO ) publishing since its move to Cambridge University identifies a broad range of research questions addressed with a broad range of empirical approaches. One of the strengths of our journal is that we equally consider the contribution of theory development, quantitative research methods and qualitative research methods.

JMO is proud to present here a showcase of strategic management research in this themed issue. This strategic management themed issue presents a selection of seven research articles plus two research notes with a mix that reflects the international orientation of the journal with an Australasian edge (Bentley, Reference Bentley 2015 ). Theories presented in the seven research articles include the resource-based view, network theory, agency theory, stewardship theory, upper echelons theory, social theory and dynamic capabilities. The empirical articles presented here are quantitative in their orientation and they are complemented by two theoretical research articles. There are also two research notes by Galvin, Rice, and Liao ( Reference Galvin, Rice and Liao 2015 ) and Arndt and Norbert ( Reference Arndt and Norbert 2015 ), respectively, debating the contribution of Galvin, Rice, and Laio’s ( Reference Galvin, Rice and Liao 2014 ) dynamic capabilities empirical article. This is not a statement of methodological preference by the Editorial Board of JMO but rather the timing and availability of quality strategic management peer-reviewed manuscripts. As an Associate Editor I have published (e.g., O’Shannassy, Reference O’Shannassy, Kemp and Booth 2014 ) and make a point of continuing to promote and mentor qualitative research.

In terms of a road map for the next sections of this editorial, first, I will introduce the seven research articles and two research notes presented in this issue. Second, I will set out a future research agenda informed by regional and global trends in strategic management research and industry practice. I will then draw conclusions.

The purpose of the strategic management field of research is to study the responsibilities and roles of general managers (Hambrick, Reference Hambrick 2004 ). This field of research has developed around a set of certain foundational theories that range widely in their theoretical underpinnings and the methodologies used to investigate them (Hambrick, Reference Hambrick 2004 ; Powell, Reference Powell 2014 ). This reflects the integrative nature of strategic management teaching, research and practice, plus the interests of an eclectic mix of scholars from a range of countries, from a variety of research cultures (e.g., North America and industrial economics, Europe and sociology of the workplace, Asia and family business networks) and a range of interests.

The first article by Xie, Wang, and Qi (2015) explores the influence of top management team (TMT) faultline configuration on firm performance and innovation. In faultline theory, a TMT can split into subgroups where there is alignment of particular team member demographic attributes; there can be negative outcomes with this occurrence and also the possibility of positive outcomes. Using 2009–2013 panel data from 353 teams in 153 Chinese stock exchange-listed information technology businesses, moderated regression shows TMT faultline strength, high number of subgroups and high balance of subgroups act jointly to predict positive short-term performance. TMT faultline strength, a high number of subgroups and low subgroup balance jointly predict a favourable level of firm innovation activity. This article advances understanding of the positive attributes of TMT faultline configuration, which has not received the same level of attention as the negative attributes in prior research.

Next Luan and Tien ( Reference Luan and Tien 2015 ) study the efficacy of the smiling curve, a term first communicated by Stan Shih, the co-founder of Acer, Inc., who argued that margins at the ends of the value chain in the personal computer industry, where technology and branding have the major influence (i.e., upstream and downstream), are more lucrative than in the middle of the value chain, where assembly is important. The research used cross-sectional time series regression to analyse data from 436 stock exchange companies in a range of 11 industries (e.g., automotive, pharmaceuticals, electronics) from 1996 to 2011 on a series of hypotheses in relation to the smiling curve theory, downsizing and firm performance. Results were mixed with two major findings. First, companies that internalize marketing and research and development may improve their future performance. Second, there are only limited circumstances where downsizing practices result in better firm performance.

In the third article Huang, Rice, and Martin ( Reference Huang, Rice and Martin 2015 ) study the value of ‘open innovation’ to large-, medium- and small-sized firms in China. ‘Open innovation’ refers to the interaction of the firm with its environment characterized by permeable firm boundaries, open search strategies involving a range of external stakeholders (e.g., universities, research institutes), inbound innovation activity and outbound innovation activity. Data from the World Bank Investment Climate Survey 2003 including 2,400 Chinese firms from 14 industries and five geographic regions was used for the tobit regression analysis testing a series of hypotheses. Findings indicate that small- and medium-sized firms benefit more from external knowledge sources and interfirm networks than larger organizations in China. Universities and research institutes proves to be important for large firms when they have internal absorptive capacity, otherwise connection to universities and research institutes is of limited value to Chinese industry. Chinese firms will benefit more from ‘open innovation’ when they better develop their capabilities to sense, assimilate and commercialize innovation opportunities from external stakeholders.

Yoon, Lee, and Song ( Reference Whittington 2015 ) then investigate the influence of network size and diversity of partners on knowledge creation drawing on the resource-based view of the firm and network theory. Data were obtained from a sample of 85 firms and 272 alliance observations drawn from the BioScan Industry Directory. Poisson regression analysis was used for the analysis, finding that there is a quadratic (i.e., inverted U-shape relationship) between network size and the dependent variable knowledge creation, and a negative relationship between partner diversity and the dependent variable. The conclusion is that small biotech industry firms should foster a balanced network size with external stakeholders.

Perrault and McHugh ( Reference Perrault and McHugh 2015 ) then theorize that the board of directors for a corporation has a symbolic and a substantive role in giving the firm legitimacy over the life cycle of the firm, with the challenge of actually demonstrating and achieving legitimacy evolving with the life cycle of the firm. Legitimacy in this study is referred to as the proper and appropriate image of its leaders as perceived by external stakeholders, with the benefit of highly regarded directors able to formalize more network ties, plus endorse the value of the firm effectively to an external audience. A series of research propositions are developed in relation to the life cycle of the firm and board size, the independent outside director proportion, board diversity and board capital. Perrault and McHugh ( Reference Perrault and McHugh 2015 ) make an excellent point with a view to future research, that the logic for justifying board of director characteristics can vary from firms maturing and progressing compared with firms in decline. They suggest qualitative methods (e.g., interviews, case studies) may assist the study of managing the challenge of board legitimacy at different stages of the firm life cycle, while large-scale quantitative studies (e.g., archival data, survey) will assist understanding board characteristics across the life cycle of the firm. Qualitative methods are appropriate for obtaining empirical insight into board of director interactions, while quantitative methods with archival and survey data are suitable for obtaining detailed understanding of board characteristics (Kiel & Nicholson, Reference Kiel and Nicholson 2003 ; O’Shannassy, Reference O’Shannassy 2010 ).

Lo and Hung ( Reference Lo and Hung 2015 ) using transaction cost and social network theory look at interorganizational links between issuers and underwriters that underpin the issuing performance of a firm. A series of hypotheses considering the effect of three mechanisms – a transactional mechanism, a relational mechanism and a synthesized mechanism – has on a share market offering’s price premium are tested. Analysis of the hypotheses is undertaken with survey data from 1,202 issuers and 95 lead manager banks in the US underwriting market. The results show that the joint use of a transactional mechanism and a relational mechanism provides the best approach to issuing performance than one or other of these approaches. Issuers do play a key role in organizing syndicate structure.

In the final research article Taniman and O’Shannassy ( Reference Taniman and O’Shannassy 2015 ) draw on agency theory, stewardship theory, institutional theory and upper echelons theory to explore the influence of chief executive officer (CEO) professional development and work context on organization performance. A series of research propositions are developed to provide the basis for a future empirical study. The value to the organization of a CEO with an output-dominated background (i.e., marketing, sales, product research and development), international work experience, the benefits of separation of the chairperson and CEO role, plus long CEO tenure are explained. The debate in relation to the value of a lower outside director ratio is explored. The implications for leadership selection and the ‘soft’ aspects of leadership practice are discussed (O’Shannassy, Kemp, & Booth, Reference O’Shannassy 2010 ).

Next two research notes are presented. The origin of the debate between Galvin, Rice, and Liao ( Reference Galvin, Rice and Liao 2015 ) and Arndt and Norbert ( Reference Arndt and Norbert 2015 ) in this issue starts with a study by Galvin, Rice, and Liao ( Reference Galvin, Rice and Liao 2014 ), who suggested that a stronger Darwinian approach to understanding dynamic capabilities would be of value in a quantitative empirical study with a sample of 190 service firms. Arndt and Norbert ( Reference Arndt and Norbert 2015 ) present an alternative argument here that the unit of analysis for dynamic capabilities research should not be at the firm level but rather at the industry level. They also suggest that until the key Darwinian terms of variation, selection and retention (Darwin, Reference Darwin 1859 ) are operationalized at the routine level, firm level and industry level, respectively, that insight into how dynamic capabilities are applied in different environmental contexts will be limited. They observe that an appropriate dependent variable for dynamic capabilities research should be survival rather than firm performance. Galvin, Rice, and Liao ( Reference Galvin, Rice and Liao 2015 ) respond here acknowledging that the key terms variation–retention–selection should be operationalized at the three levels. They see the dynamic capabilities view as a theory independent of but complementary to the resource-based view of the firm.

Galvin and Arndt ( Reference Galvin and Arndt 2014 ) set out an excellent appraisal of the state of the strategic management field of research and a future research agenda with their editorial. Highlights were their remarks on encouraging public sector and not-for-profit sector research, improving understanding of the microfoundations of strategy, methodological challenges and the connection between strategy and ethics, but today there is also more to consider. The world is confronted by a series of major problems, some of these are related and some are unrelated, impacting the corporation, teamwork and the person. Ideas for a future research agenda to improve in these areas follow next.

Strategic management research and the corporation

Major problems confronting the corporation include clearly identifying their governance responsibilities to shareholders and stakeholders, and then managing these challenges effectively for sustained periods of time (Porter & Kramer, Reference Porter and Kramer 2011 ).

World population is predicted to increase from 7.35 billion in 2015 to 11.21 billion in 2100 (United Nations, 2015 ). An issue for the corporation is that as population increases and middle classes grow in populous countries including China, India and Indonesia, how large will these companies grow to be and how will they be led by the board of directors and executive? What priorities will determine these choices on appropriate governance structures? What measures (e.g., product range, product diversification, rate of development of new products, impact of disruptive technology on the business model, units sold, sales, sales growth, sales by region, sales by product and/or service, return on assets) will determine these choices by corporations on appropriate governance structures? What business models will be adopted by these big corporates? What influence will industry and industry clock speed have on these governance choices?

A key social issue for the ANZAM community and the wider global community of strategic management scholars to consider is improving the participation of woman at all levels of middle management, senior management and the board of directors in corporations. Women continue to be underrepresented at senior executive level and on boards of directors in countries including Australia, China, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States, presenting a vexing problem for strategic management scholars to solve. An effective solution may be identified undertaking rigorous research into the development of corporate-level solutions aimed at improving management status, board of director access, average income levels and the financial savings patterns of working woman. Support for paid parental leave, schemes to assist childcare, mentoring, staff training and staff development can assist in these areas. Improving the participation and productivity of woman in the workplace across the whole corporation can assist the organization to achieve competitive advantage and deliver robust performance.

The global financial crisis delivers a chilling strategic reality on corporate governance practice and time. Major financial institutions in the United States and Europe made a series of strategic errors that went unchecked in their home-lending portfolios from the mid-1990s, securitized these home mortgages and then distributed these securities globally on commercial terms. This practice had a devastating impact on the banking industry and wider global economy, adversely influencing the balance sheets and financial performance of other financial institutions that had sound home-lending practices. It is well known that company directors and executives of organizations including Citibank and Bank of America were rewarded at the time for the growth of their home loan businesses while trading these securities on financial markets that would in time have a telling adverse impact on Western capitalism. Unless the lessons from the resolution of the global financial crisis are learned and stored as knowledge in central banks and financial institutions globally, these errors can only be repeated. What contribution can strategic management as a field of research make to protect the stability of global financial markets and the savings of the world population? Unchecked the events of the global financial crisis evidence the capacity of Western capitalism to destroy its own ability to create and sustain shareholder value (Porter & Kramer, Reference Porter and Kramer 2011 ; Fitzroy, Hulbert, & Ghobandian, Reference Fitzroy, Hulbert and Ghobandian 2012 ). This is a sobering thought and strategic management as a field of research and teaching can make a real difference here, with University faculty educating the current and future generations of business leaders to deliver sustainable shareholder and stakeholder value.

Strategic management research and teamwork

Teamwork is an important issue for strategic management scholars. Integrating strategy workers that have a high level of proficiency in ‘hard’ skills (e.g., accounting, finance, engineering) with strategy workers gifted with a preference for ‘soft’ skills (e.g., relationship management, integrated marketing communication) effectively into teams to achieve better teamwork quality and team performance results requires further inquiry (O’Shannassy, Kemp, & Booth, Reference O’Shannassy 2010 ). Perception of team collaboration success and team success tends to vary by organization level and with in-depth knowledge of the relevant project area (e.g., innovative research and development efforts) and professional skills of team members (Hoegl & Gemuenden, Reference Hoegl and Gemuenden 2001 ). The role of woman in contributing to teamwork quality and team success perception in their own view and in the view of their team peers, plus the influence of gender balance in teamwork quality and team success is also worthy of investigation as strategic management scholars seek to find effective ways to help woman survive, prosper and make a valuable contribution in the workplace.

Related to the issue of different perceptions of teamwork quality and team success in organizations, O’Shannassy ( Reference O’Shannassy, Kemp and Booth 2014 ) suggests qualitative samples including TMT members and middle managers from the same organization can be developed to gain insight into the realities of strategy practice, including sources of harmony and points of tension between these different organization levels. The training, development and socialization of middle managers is worthy of investigation and this impacts their performance in teams (Rouleau & Balogun, Reference Rouleau and Balogun 2011 ). These matters are also influenced by national business culture; field research in different countries may yield interesting contrasts of results here.

Upper echelons theory considers the influence of top managers in the corporation, their cognition, reasoning, perception, values and how they work as a team. TMT composition choices (e.g., the balance of inside appointments vs. outside appointments) and TMT processes have implications for teamwork quality, team success, personal success and overall organization performance (Hoegl & Gemuenden, Reference Hoegl and Gemuenden 2001 ; Boyd, Haynes, & Zona, Reference Boyd, Haynes and Zona 2011 ). The teamwork quality of the CEO with the chairperson on the board of directors, in a legal jurisdiction where there is a preference for separation of the CEO and chairperson role, is also under researched with few robust qualitative or quantitative databases developed. A productive work relationship between the separation CEO and the chairperson is crucial to the success of the corporation. These upper echelon issues are worthy of further field research.

Strategic management research and the person

Both Hambrick ( Reference Hambrick 2004 ) and Powell ( Reference Powell 2014 ) highlight the importance of the person in strategic management research, with Powell ( Reference Powell 2014 ) noting a drift since the 1980s from human scale problems (e.g., goal-setting, decision making) to mass abstractions (e.g., dynamic capabilities, strategic factor markets). Powell ( Reference Powell 2014 ) guesses that strategic management as a field of research and practice is 25% impersonal and 75% personal. He notes the importance of choosing a methodology that is an appropriate fit for the phenomena of the empirical study, allowing the research to add texture, depth and find linkages otherwise not seen in the interconnections and research implications we do understand (Hambrick, Reference Hambrick 2004 ). Building into theory development and research design human preferences and human limits – giving the researcher scope to gain insight into strategy worker biases, ego, jealousy, vision, charisma, fears, hopes, ambition and other human issues presents an opportunity for an interesting research contribution (Hambrick, Reference Hambrick 2004 ; Powell, Reference Powell 2014 ). Powell ( Reference Powell 2014 ) suggests using best available scientific research designs including brain imaging, physiological testing, psychological testing, computer simulation, mathematical modelling and computer simulation to better understand the person doing strategy work in the organization. The impact of wider advances in technology (e.g., decision support tools), social needs (e.g., housing, health, public transport), environmental needs (e.g., clean rivers, clean air) and social trends (e.g., social media, social networking, work from home) on the strategy worker in the organization also warrant further research attention (Whittington, Reference Yoon, Lee and Song 2007 ; Porter & Kramer, Reference Porter and Kramer 2011 ).

In conclusion, one of the biggest challenges for an Associate Editor helping to lead the blind peer review process is to determine the contribution to theory, and the quality and rigour of the empirical data and analysis undertaken, by researchers aspiring to publish in JMO . It is often the case that an empirical article submitted using quantitative methods has one or more of the problems of weak hypothesis development, an inadequate sampling frame, weak explanation of key study variables, incorrect statistical methods (e.g., poor execution of moderated multiple regression) or poor presentation of correctly applied statistical methods. Each of these problems can be the cause of a rejection to authors, with the latter cause easily resolved if only there had been proper attention to the presentation customs of the journal. Deficiencies in studies using qualitative methods include an inadequate sampling frame, poor explanation of analysis techniques, a weak attempt at demonstrating reliability and validity, and/or a lack of clear contribution to theory and practice. The onus is on the author(s) of a qualitative study to demonstrate contribution to theory and research rigour, and there can be a substantial amount of judgement used by blind reviewers in assessing this. Author(s) need to keep in mind the need to manage risk of rejection with their manuscript preparation for the blind peer review process by ensuring strength in each of these areas. The strategic management field around the world now has been enriched by both quantitative and qualitative methods, with a greater acceptance and embrace of qualitative methods evident in recent years (Bettis et al., Reference Bettis, Gambardella, Helfat and Mitchell 2015 ). JMO welcomes theoretical, quantitative, qualitative and mixed method studies.

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• Volume 21, Issue 5
• Tim O’Shannassy (a1)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2015.44

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A strategic management process: the role of decision-making style and organisational performance

Journal of Work-Applied Management

ISSN : 2205-2062

Article publication date: 16 February 2023

Issue publication date: 24 April 2023

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework for integrating strategic thinking factors, organisational performance and the decision-making process.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology involves a synthesis of literature and proposes a framework that explores the relationship between strategic thinking enabling factors, organisational performance and the moderating effect of decision-making styles.

The framework includes strategic thinking enabling factors (systems perspective, focused intent, intelligent opportunism, thinking in time and hypothesis-driven analysis), organisational performance and the moderating effect of decision-making styles (intuitive and rational).

Research limitations/implications

This research results in a conceptual model only; it remains to be tested in actual practice. The expanded conceptual framework can serve as a basis for future empirical research and provide insights to practitioners into how to strengthen policy development in a strategic planning process.

Originality/value

A paradigm shift in the literature proves that strategic management and decision-making styles are vital in determining organisational performance. This paper highlights the importance of decision-making styles and develops a framework for strategic management by analysing the existing strategic management literature.

• Strategic management
• Intuitive decision-making
• Rational decision-making
• Strategic thinking process
• Organisational performance

Sinnaiah, T. , Adam, S. and Mahadi, B. (2023), "A strategic management process: the role of decision-making style and organisational performance", Journal of Work-Applied Management , Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 37-50. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWAM-10-2022-0074

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Tamilarasu Sinnaiah, Sabrinah Adam and Batiah Mahadi

Published in Journal of Work-Applied Management . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

1. Introduction

Managers are appointed to achieve the organisation's objectives and goals. As these objectives gradually increase with competition, managers must become strategic thinkers with excellent decision-making skills. The strategy towards the organisational outcome highlighted in this section has been widely debated among academic scholars and practitioners. Organisational strategies are essential in sustaining an organisation's competitive advantage to face a complex and uncertain future.

Effective strategic management frameworks enable managers to focus on the complex issues that must be prioritised to hasten decision-making processes ( Dlamini et al. , 2020 ). Whilst enabling managers important to make the decisions needed to direct the organisational effort towards overcoming specific issues ( Wang et al. , 2021 ). The organisation's effectiveness in addressing critical issues with solutions that best fit the current environmental factors will ensure the vitality and image of the organisation. Strategic management is pertinent to manage the organisation in a continuous, systematic manner.

The first segment of strategic management is the effective action programs chosen to reach these goals and objectives.

The second segment is the resource allocation pattern that relates the organisation to its environment.

Moreover, strategic management is defined as translating the thinking process into an action plan that benefits the organisation to sustain its competitive advantages. Strategy also can be categorised as strategic thinking and strategic planning. Strategy is also the commitment of the top-level management to attaining outcomes aligned with the organisation's strategic objectives. Strategy can be realised when there is consistent outcomes or patterns over the years. Therefore, strategy is planning for the future or determining patterns based on consistent outcomes. Organisations must develop plans and also evolve patterns derived from previous organisational outcomes. These phases can be explained as intended strategy and realised strategy.

The effectiveness of the strategies employed can indicate the organisation's performance in achieving its objectives and goals. Organisations need to measure the outcome of the strategies employed by having measurable objectives that will enhance the employees' commitment towards achieving the goals. Conversely, organisational learning and financial measures such as organisational profitability can also benchmark organisational performance. The responsiveness of organisational performance has a direct relationship and is influenced by management efforts to emphasise leadership within the organisational structure. This is done by observing the support and strategies utilised by managers to achieve the objectives and goals. This paper aims to enhance an understanding of strategic management processes involving decision-making styles towards organisational performance. First, this paper highlights strategic management's operational and theoretical approach towards organisational performance. Moreover, this study enhances the result of previous literature on strategic enablers by explaining the effort involving decision-making to strengthen the organisational structure, particularly the decision-making styles (intuitive and rational), that moderates the relationship between the strategic thinking process and organisational performances ( Ritter, 2014 ).

Academic scholars and practitioners have highlighted the importance of strategic management in measuring organisational performance in terms of innovation, entrepreneurship, technology, knowledge, economics, healthcare and organisational performance ( Adam et al ., 2018 , 2020 ; Alosani et al. , 2020 ). Conversely, there is a knowledge gap on the effective judgement practices of strategic management enablers and organisational performance during decision-making ( Abuhjeeleh et al ., 2018 ; Acciarini et al. , 2021 ; Elrehail et al ., 2020 ; Nguyen, 2020 ). This paper analyses the relationship between strategic management and organisational performance and suggests a framework to elucidate the relationship variables such as moderators, rational and intuitive decision-making styles.

2. Literature review

Strategic management is applying strategic decisions towards the organisational vision to achieve strategic competitiveness and sustain competitive advantages ( Alosani et al. , 2020 ; Rodrigues and Franco, 2019 ). Strategic management is a cognitive impairment of structuring the internal capabilities to fulfil external demands and involves plans, patterns, positions, perspectives and plots ( Mintzberg et al ., 2020 ). Strategic management is the managerial discourse involving a framework of the decision-making process, which highlights how the strategy process is formulated in organisations, acknowledging the cognitive management structure of the organisations. Additionally, the organisation's members need to respond effectually to the decisions made by the management and cooperate to ensure that the organisational vision is reached, given that this will affect the organisational adaptability, legitimacy and performance ( Johnsen, 2015 ). Organisations must be aware of the uncertain environments that can influence their welfare.

Consequently, the strategic management process can be reflected in two directions: strategic planning and strategic thinking. Strategic planning emphasises formulating strategies or disciplined efforts to produce strategic decisions to achieve the organisation's objectives ( Bryson, 2018 ). Strategic planning also can be reflected as a system that enhances the decision-making process among the members of an organisation. The strategic management process needs to be fulfilling for the organisation to sustain its competitive advantages. Moreover, strategic thinking is creative, disruptive, future-focused and experimental and often contradicts traditional notions of strategic planning ( Liedtka, 2000 ). Strategic planning is the principal element of the strategic management process involving resource management, implementation, control and evaluation of strategies ( Poister et al ., 2010 ). Strategic planning focuses on formalising existing strategies and employing creativity to enhance perspectives ( Mintzberg et al ., 2020 ). The uncertainties of environments and conflicting perspectives can be evaluated and addressed using strategic thinking as a part of the organisational decision-making process ( Chin et al ., 2018 ). Studies by Goldman et al . (2015) indicated that organisational members are not actively involved during the strategic decision-making process, leading to the decline in the organisation's performance.

The importance of the strategic decision-making process towards organisational performance was emphasised by Steptoe‐Warren et al. (2011) . The research suggested that evaluating, identifying and validating the process will enhance the strategic thinking process to positively impact performance ( Norzailan et al ., 2016 ). Moreover, strategic thinking plays a vital role in analysing the external factors influencing the process. If the organisational members take it lightly, it will lead to perception deficiencies ( Kızıloglu and Serinkan, 2015 ). Additionally, the study highlighted that strategic planning occurs after strategic thinking ( Alatailat et al ., 2019 ; Bonn, 2001 ; Mintzberg, 1994 ). Consequently, this study will focus on strategic thinking as the fundamental phase in the strategic management process.

A conceptual framework that highlights the management principles among the business process in delivering effective solutions for problems is shown in Figure 1 .

3. Strategic management

Strategic management is defined as a framework for achieving success, and it is pivotal for organisations to achieve their objectives and continuously perform better ( Elliott et al ., 2020 ). Additionally, strategic management is a continuous process of looking for a better action plan to ensure the organisation's competitiveness.

3.1 Strategic thinking

The most challenging issue an organisation faces is awareness of the strategic vision and missions, available resources and identifying opportunities for growth within the organisation ( Bryson, 2018 ). Therefore, strategic thinking is a vital element in the chain of processes, which must be carried out effectively and systematically ( Sahay, 2019 ). Nevertheless, organisations need to be aware that strategic thinking can fail miserly if the decision-makers do not realise the strategic enablers or the factors responsible for the effective strategic thinking process. Strategic enablers influence the thoughts and decision process of the organisational members ( Goldman et al ., 2015 ). Therefore, strategic enablers will lead the organisation's members towards idea growth and personal development, while strategic thinkers expedite the organisational performances ( Alatailat et al ., 2019 ).

Individuals involved in the organisational structure utilise their experiences and thought processes in managing conflicts to enhance strategic thinking ( Alaarj et al ., 2016 ). Strategy managers or thinkers recognise the relationship between business responsibilities and departments and organisations and their business stakeholders ( Cabral et al. , 2019 ). This relationship is known as “system thinking”, where an organisation explores the structure reflected in the action and environment that causes the incident. Additionally, the direction or the organisational destiny is a type of strategic intent utilised to help achieve the business objectives. This occurs when all the employees can concentrate on their purpose until it is achievable.

Strategic intent is pertinent in increasing competitive advantages and improving organisational performance ( Chen et al ., 2015 ). Intelligent firms must be considered before becoming competitive to ensure the organisation can create intelligent opportunities to lead the business emerging strategies towards their vision ( Alaarj et al ., 2016 ). Conversely, the organisation should integrate previous events with the current situation to achieve and align with the organisation's objectives. This is vital for organisations to connect to the past and present environment to envision the firms and prepare for any internal or external challenges in their business ( Abubakar et al ., 2019 ). A hypothesis-driven analysis is the core element in the strategic thinking process to gather relevant information regarding the business. Therefore, the challenges faced must be transformed into a hypothesis-driven analysis to understand better the measures needed to be taken by the stakeholders to improve the organisational performances.

3.2 Decision-making style

The role of managers within an organisation must be elucidated to help enhance the decision-making process to create competitive advantages for the organisation ( Dionisio, 2017 ). Moreover, Porter (1990) emphasised the differences between competitive strategy and competitors. Decision-making styles also play a vital role in formalising the strategic decision procedure and can be defined as a habitual or formal response pattern taken by managers when there is an incident ( Kulcsár et al ., 2020 ). According to Acciarini et al. (2021) , decision-making styles are directly related to cognitive styles involved in the strategic thinking process. Decision-making style, which can be both at individual and team levels, can be classified into intuition and rationality ( Dayan and Di Benedetto, 2011 ; Dayan and Elbanna, 2011 ; Giermindl et al ., 2022 ; Luan et al ., 2019 ; Sukhov et al ., 2021 ). Therefore, the author highlighted that cognitive styles could be divided into two different categories: “feeling as information evaluators”, where managers actively gather information intuitively, and “thinking as information evaluators”, where managers systematically collect information ( Behling et al ., 1980 ). Alternatively, decision-making styles can be considered intuitive and rational information gathering and evaluating styles ( Calabretta et al ., 2017 ).

The intuitive decision-making style can be defined as the episodes of uncertainty patterns of action imposed by managers or the decision-makers based on the current situation. In addition, intuitive decision-makers must be aware of current issues and relate the relationship between cognitive schemes with holistic thinking to resolve problems ( Calabretta et al ., 2017 ). It is also believed that the intuitive decision-making process can be influenced by a sudden awareness of information ( Zhu et al ., 2017 ). Decision-makers can determine solutions without fully understanding or realising the extent of information available. Studies agree that the intuitive decision-making process can occur when unsorted information is restructured into an organised pattern of action that transforms into a conscious solution ( Zander et al ., 2016 ). Furthermore, the intuition organisations performance is enhanced when decision-makers utilise the intuition decision-making style when there is no access or relevant analytical data to support them in making strategic decisions that align with the organisation's objectives ( Temprano-García et al ., 2018 ). Conversely, intuition decision-making also contributes positively to the organisations performance when the issues are resolved quickly despite limited resources or knowledge on the current issues.

Studies by Sauter (1999) emphasised that intuition decision-making or illumination is a sudden awareness of information where the decision-makers are unaware of fundamental facts or information. The author also highlighted several ways to establish the intuitive decision-making process. First, detection is an intuition where decision-makers think of several different situations rather than focusing on the current issue ( Kolbe et al. , 2020 ). Working on current strategic issues will enable managers to comprehend related information to help solve the issue by connecting facts or elements that previously did not relate to each other ( Temprano-García et al ., 2018 ). Another form of intuition is evaluation, where the solution appears as an available option creating a sense of certainty or vague feelings towards the analytical data ( Hodgetts et al ., 2017 ).

Conversely, the intuition decision-making process can also be hypothesised as an explicit and implicit decision-making style ( Tabesh and Vera, 2020 ), where explicit decision utilises feelings or emotion and implicit decisions refer to the experience of the relevant situation ( Bhat  et al ., 2021 ; Remmers et al ., 2016 ). Moreover, intuitive decision-making styles also utilise the subconscious processing of verbalised and nonverbalised facts or information ( Tabesh and Vera, 2020 ). A recent study suggests that intuitive decision-making aided managers in enhancing the strategic decision towards the organisation's performance ( Francioni and Clark, 2020 ).

Rational decision-making involves several solutions that will be analysed based on the issues and the relevance of this information towards the current problem before implementing the final decision ( Temprano-García et al ., 2018 ). The structured information consisting of conscious thinking must be evaluated critically ( Acciarini et al. , 2021 ). In addition, the rational decision-making process will enhance the effectiveness of the decision by structuring the decision criteria by highlighting and evaluating the alternatives individually ( Fitzgerald et al ., 2017 ). The decision-makers or the managers who utilise rational decision-making styles are more likely to be vigilant and organised about available information during decision-making ( Zhu et al ., 2021 ).

3.3 Organisational performance

For five decades, organisational performance has been widely researched by academic scholars and business practitioners ( Adam et al ., 2018 ). Organisational performance has been analysed in terms of normative and descriptive explanations in strategic planning research for continuous improvement in managing organisational performance ( Buddika et al ., 2016 ). Organisational performance can be explained by describing how things happen without judging good or bad. Alternatively, the organisational performance also can be elucidated by an evaluation in terms of performance against a benchmarked alternative or standard or by a descriptive statement explaining how the situation occurs without judgement ( Camilleri, 2021 ). Even though most research is done on the continuous improvements of organisational performance, practitioners still have many arguments and discussions on the terminology and conceptual bases to determine organisational performance ( Sarraf and Nejad, 2020 ).

Organisational performance can be reflected based on the results of the organisation's common objectives, given that the methods implemented are coherently used. Consequently, the performance processes' flow or the input resources can be critically analysed ( Tsai et al ., 2020 ). The effectiveness of organisational performance is influenced by the process implemented and can be measured by the achievements. Furthermore, organisational performance is defined as analysing the series of improvements to achieve organisational objectives. Generally, various factors can be associated with organisational performance, such as organisational structures, conflict, cross-cultural and social influences ( Sinnaiah et al. , 2023 ).

Performance measurement is a systematic series to identify the effectiveness and efficiency of people's behaviour to perform to their utmost abilities. Adam et al . (2018) described performance measurement as a unit, department or business process. Therefore, it is conceptualised that there is a structural relationship between organisational performance and performance measurement. Moreover, performance measurement requires substantive and relevant restructuring of input resources and processes to be aligned with the current system to increase productivity level or performance. Failure to analyse the performance measures will weaken the organisational strength and drain the organisation's efforts ( Alosani et al. , 2020 ). Thus, strategic thinking can be a highly effective performance measure for organisations.

4. Propositions

4.1 strategic thinking process and performance.

Strategic thinking is a structured assessment of analysing and synthesising information, intensively assessing the current situation and initiating new ideas or best available options to achieve strategic objectives ( Dhir and Dhir, 2020 ). An organisation's success depends on strategic thinking as it will enhance a decision-maker's skills, abilities and knowledge and help sustain competitiveness in uncertain environments ( Dhir et al ., 2021 ). Consequently, the process of strategic thinking is crucial for any organisation to successfully achieve and survive in the market for a more extended period. Decision-makers need to be effective and cognisant of the business opportunities that arise from innovating new ideas to enhance the strategic portfolio of organisations ( Bryson et al ., 2018 ).

Strategic thinking process will positively influence organisational performance.

4.2 Rational decision-making style, strategic thinking process and performance

In evaluating an organisation's performance and the uncertainties of the environment that influences the complexities in achieving positive growth for the organisation successfully, managers must have decision-making skills that utilise strategic thinking processes. Moreover, managers must be responsible for making fast and effective solutions by analysing, evaluating and prioritising available information to overcome strategic issues and obtain positive results ( Acciarini et al. , 2021 ). According to Calabretta et al . (2017) , there is a positive correlation between the strategic thinking process and decision-making style. Decision-making styles have the same structure as strategic thinking, which involves different levels, such as organisation or individuals.

Rational decision-making will moderate the relationship between the strategic thinking process and organisational performance.

4.3 Intuitive decision-making style, strategic thinking process and performance

Several studies highlight the roles of the strategic thinking process among managers within the boundaries of our cognitive capacities ( Kaufmann et al ., 2017 ) and postulate that mental flexibility can influence it ( Barlach and Plonski, 2021 ). Studies also emphasise that managers or decision-makers often utilise intuition during challenging situations, which is expected compared to the rational way of analysing the issues ( Kaufmann et al ., 2017 ). This intuition process can be a two-fold construct consisting of experience-based and emotionally affected situations. Additionally, this can involve a complex process of information affected by new cues towards previous experiences stored in their memory and transform it into subconscious action in the decision-making process ( Stanczyk et al ., 2015 ). Based on the study done by Simon (1976) , academic scholars and practitioners emphasised that managers are highly keen on inner feelings or gut feelings involving strategic decisions when faced with competitive issues ( Al-Jaifi and Al-Rassas, 2019 ; Bozhinov et al ., 2021 ; Palaniappan, 2017 ). The decision-making process utilising intuition uses available information, which might not have been available in the past, to quicken the process of decision-making. It is also important to realise that decision-making depends on the issues faced by the organisations, and not all issues require a rational decision-making style. For specific issues, managers might only need relevant information, deliberation and formal procedures to derive effective solutions for the organisation compared to instances where the managers are not bounded by any set of procedures or rules to solve the issue.

Therefore, strategic thinking is a process of synthesis, and based on intuitive decision-making style, where the outcome is an integrated perspective of the enterprise, managers can utilise intuition decision-making style to arrive at a solution with complete freedom and flexibility towards the organisational performance. The decision-makers attempt to be involved in the decision-making process while being aware of the current issues and having a sense of relationship among the cognitive schemas with the approach of holistic thinking to determine the solution to the problem ( Khemka and Hickson, 2021 ). It is clear that the intuitive decision-making process would include the issues faced by the organisation in analysing the issues and synthesis ( Zhu et al ., 2017 ) although all the processes occur under the sense of relationship or perception. It is also believed that the intuitive decision-making process could be influenced by the decision-makers upon the sudden awareness of information ( Peng et al ., 2020 ), whereby the decision-makers could propose a solution without the understanding or realisation of why the facts are present.

Intuitive decision-making will moderate the relationship between the strategic thinking process and organisational performance.

5. Discussion and conclusion

This paper reviews strategic management involving the strategic thinking process, organisational performance and decision-making styles with extant empirical work transforming into propositions, with the ultimate goal being to integrate the strategic management process into a systematised and approachable process that needs a fast response. Strategic management plays a vital role in aligning the standard repertoire of an organisation's strategic thinking. Moreover, managers must realise that strategic thinking has a unique process that depends on the situation. The thinking process should be aligned with the specific scenarios to ensure the best solution can be implemented. To sustain competitive advantage, managers should be effectively involved in the strategic thinking process to positively impact their organisations ( Bryson et al ., 2018 ).

The importance of strategic thinking enablers (systems perspective, focused intent, intelligent opportunism, thinking in time and hypothesis-driven analysis) was emphasised in the strategic thinking process and organisational performance. The systems perspective exposes the importance of organisations understanding the relationship between functions and departments internally and externally. Furthermore, organisations need to consider the functional, business and organisation strategies towards a highly competitive environment ( Buddika et al ., 2016 ). Consequently, these systems perspectives will help organisations manage interactions effectively across all departments to enhance productivity. Focus on intent will guide the organisations towards achieving strategic objectives and resisting eccentricity ( Bromiley and Rau, 2015 ). Focus intent will positively aid organisations to be more competitive in the long run as the managers realise the sense of discovery in managing strategic objectives. Therefore, it will improve the performance and consciously push the organisation towards innovation by eliminating limitations and becoming high achievers. Conversely, intelligent opportunism will enhance the strategic objectives by creating new opportunities to be more competitive although the strategies do not align with the current vision of the organisation. This is where intelligent opportunism will play an essential role at the managerial level of the organisation to effectively communicate and measure organisational performances ( Camilleri, 2021 ).

Emerging strategies will boost the organisation's motivation and productivity and should be carefully evaluated from time to time as the future of the organisations might be projected based on the past performance. Therefore, the importance of swift thinking permits the strategic managers to purposefully analyse the mission and vision of the organisation over time. The right action at the right time will help the organisations sustain competitively and save the organisations from self-destruction by limiting the positive changes made to help improve the organisation's performance ( Adam et al ., 2018 ).

Maintaining the balance between thinking creation and cognitive processing ( Calabretta et al ., 2017 ) and enhancing organisational performance (education, financial, creative, innovation, e-commerce and quality) is a challenge faced when creating effective management strategies ( Adam et al ., 2018 ; Al-Jaifi and Al-Rassas, 2019 ; Alharbi et al ., 2019 ; Arvis et al ., 2018 ). In addition, based on previous theoretical perspectives, most of the research scenarios will be based on the governance mechanisms of management and the policy development impacts on organisational performance ( Abubakar et al ., 2019 ). Therefore, based on extensive empirical and conceptual research, strategic thinking processes positively contribute to measuring organisational performance. Based on previous research, this study infers that cognitive development plays an effective role in the segregation of control between strategic thinking, which serves as a barrier to becoming more competitive and innovative in the long run ( Adam et al ., 2018 ). In addition, this happens among employees and directly impacts the quality of the organisational harmonies, such as mutual respect, trust and welfare of the employees. A cognitive processing environment is the use of intuition and rationality in decision-making with equal importance. The managers utilise intuition decision-making styles to resolve unrelated information received. During the strategic thinking process, the managers will receive unsorted information without processed knowledge which will be later organised into sorted knowledge using intuition styles ( Zander et al ., 2016 ). However, the rational decision-making style focuses more on the analytical procedure to conclude an issue the organisation faces. This helps the managers build confidence in the solution by eliminating uncertainty during decision-making ( Zhu et al ., 2021 ). Moreover, managers will only accept solutions with clear and less ambiguous information (rational) compared to managers utilising a more subconscious style (intuition) when formulating solutions. Consequently, there will be conflict in the decision-making process within the organisations.

According to Boamah et al. (2022) , the effectiveness of decision-making styles can differ according to the situation and the dependents. Alternatively, both decision-making styles were highlighted as an alternative way of generating a problem–solution approach within organisations ( Kolbe et al. , 2020 ; Stanczyk et al ., 2015 ). This study argues that both decision-making styles have equal importance in resolving problem–solution approaches and can be a harmonious process to achieve an effective performance measure. This argument is supported by Acciarini et al. (2021) , Tabesh and Vera (2020) . Therefore, this study concludes that both decision-making styles (rational and intuition) positively impact the strategic thinking process and organisational performance. Based on the framework in Figure 1 , the proposed framework highlights the missing sections of cognitive processing among businesses when delivering effective solutions for a complex problem. Organisations have only emphasised human capital and treated it as a scarce resource that will determine the organisation's performance. This study proposed that future strategic management researchers should explore the thinking process literature's core principles to investigate policy development further. Future research should transform these academic initiatives into empirical research by implementing this proposed model.

Conceptual framework

Competing interests: The authors reported no competing interests.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the administration of Azman Hashim International Business School, Block T08, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, for providing the facilities and the PhD Scholar room during this research.

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