Perspectives on Strategic Change

Luca Zan, Stefano Zambon, Andrew M. Pettigrew This book has developed from an international research workshop organ ized by the Dipartimento di Economia e Direzione Aziendale, University of Venice, and the Centre for Corporate Strategy and Change, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick. The purpose of the workshop was to foster the growth of a European network of scholars and to help create a "European perspective" in studying strategic change. The ten chapters in this book were first presented in Venice in May 1991 and have been substantially revised since then. The ten commentaries on the chapters are in most cases substantial developments of the oral responses made at the workshop, as indeed is the final review chapter by Andrew Van de Ven. The theme of this book, the study of strategic change processes, remains as theoretically alive and empirically real in the 1990s as it did in the 1980s. For many organizations in the European and North American context, the 1980s was an era of radical change. In this respect there is a wide array of examples. Structural changes in old industries such as coal, shipbuilding, steel, and heavy engineering led to a great employment loss and the impoverishment of certain regional economies that had remained dependent on those industries. But it was not just the old industries that X INTRODUCTION experienced major change during the 1980s.

Klappentext

The theme of this book is the study of strategic change processes, with a focus on the 'European perspective' in studying strategic change. The 1980s ushered in an era of radical change for many organizations both in Europe and North America, and the topics have become dominant academic and policy issues of the 1990s.br/ Using a variety of theoretical perspectives and drawing on a number of academic disciplines, the book presents some challenging ideas about the theory and practice of the study of strategic change. The theoretical and empirical contributions of the book are presented around three key areas - the internationalization processes of firms, the development of human resources, and public sector change. The chapters are written by prominent scholars from economics, organization theory, history, sociology, accounting, and business strategy. Enriching this diversity is a mixture of national intellectual traditions emanating from the Anglo-Saxon, French, German, Italian and Scandinavian countries.br/

Inhalt
Strategy, Change, and the Strategic Approach: Making Sense in Process.- Management of Internationalization.- Barriers to Internationalization.- Networks and Internationalization: Managing Complexity Through Knowledge.- Human Resource Management and Strategic Change: The Italian Case.- Institutionalist Explanations: A Special Case of Strategic Fit?.- Integrating Operational and Strategic Knowledge Bases for Competitive Performance.- Introducing Market-Like Mechanisms in the Public Sector: The Case of the National Health Service.- Assessing Recent Changes in the Role of Government in the Economy.- Strategic Divestment in the Public Sector: Patterns from France and Great Britain.- An Assessment of Perspectives on Strategic Change.