Howard Thomas

The structure and evolution of the strategic management field: A content analysis of 26 years of strategic management research

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.

An analysis of the environment and competitive dynamics of management education

Purpose – The paper seeks to identify the key environmental forces and competitive drivers influencing the strategic management of a business school, and to give guidance about strategic choices as the business school evolves in the new knowledge economy.Design/methodology/approach – Analytic tools such as PEST analysis and competitive analysis are used to provide a model and framework for dialogue about strategic choice.Findings – The influence of demographic, technological, entrepreneurship and globalisation drivers provides a series of implications for competitive action and strategic choice. In the current environment it offers a school strategy of a rigorous academic research profile informed and guided by practice. This is favoured over a more professional agenda.Originality/value – The paper reviews and updates the literature on future strategies and scenarios for business schools from an analytic perspective.

Competitive Groups as Cognitive Communities: The Case of Scottish Knitwear Manufacturers Revisited

In this paper we reflect on the contribution of our 1989 article ‘Competitive Groups as Cognitive Communities: The Case of Scottish Knitwear Manufacturers’. We begin by recalling our backgrounds and motivations as collaborators on the project, and then discuss recent developments in the Scottish Borders knitwear industry. Noting that the industry has suffered continual decline in the twenty years since we published our paper, we suggest that the case still raises issues that remain open questions in the field despite the significant efforts by management researchers in recent years to understand the sources of industrial decline and revitalization. We outline what we feel are gaps in the existing literature and then end with the suggestion that these gaps are likely to be addressed only through multidisciplinary research that integrates resource, power, and cognitive theories of industrial dynamics.

Using new social media and Web 2.0 technologies in business school teaching and learning

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of social and digital media in the business school and particularly to examine how such innovative technological processes can be leveraged to enhance teaching instruction and enrich learning about practice and research.Design/methodology/approach – Taking a broad perspective on the range of social and digital media approaches, the paper discusses a series of extant models of technology‐based learning and conjectures about how they can be used creatively and meaningfully in business school teaching.Findings – Despite the pioneering efforts of the Open University in modelling distance and blended learning, adoption of such models in the business school context has been quite slow. These technologies are used more frequently as support mechanisms for “face‐to‐face” learning in order to enrich the quality of conventional professorial instructional approaches. In many business schools “face‐to‐face” learning is perceived to be of much higher quality t...

Business School Strategy and the Metrics for Success

Purpose – The paper aims to present a framework for a systems perspective for business schools to formulate strategy, assess performance and adapt to change resulting from performance, environmental and learning feedbacks.Design/methodology/approach – The paper focuses on the balanced scorecard as a means of measuring performance and modifying business school strategies over time.Findings – The paper provides a range of metrics for business schools from financial lenses to innovation and learning lenses, and adapts the scorecard framework to strategic processes from business planning to feedback and learning.Originality/value – The paper links strategy formulation to key performance indicators and strategic change for business schools.

Business schools in transition? Issues of impact, legitimacy, capabilities and re-invention

Purpose – The purpose of this editorial is to introduce the set of papers which comprise this issue of the journal, and to provide an interpretation of the current strategic debates about the future evolution of business school paradigms and, hence, identify possible strategic options.Design/methodology/approach – The papers can be categorized into three broad themes: first, the impacts and environmental influences on management education including issues of globalization, global sustainability and advances in digital and social media. Second, challenges and criticisms of management education covering issues of legitimacy, business model sustainability and the need for change in business models. Third, the re‐invention of business schools and the creation of alternative models of management education and approaches for effective implementation and delivery of those models.Findings – Globalization is an important environmental influence. Arnoud de Meyer, the President of SMU, offers his reflections. The pa...

The legitimacy of the business of business schools : what's the future?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine some challenges facing business schools and their continued legitimacy. Particular attention is paid to the problems of accreditation, regulation and rankings and how these constrain strategic choice. Design/methodology/approach – The paper builds on existing literature to provide an analytical overview of the challenges currently facing business schools. Findings – The paper assesses the current context of business schools and assesses to what extent they are becoming less relevant both in terms of practice and theories. It suggests changes business schools might make in order to increase relevance. Originality/value – The paper suggests that business schools should change their central concerns to issues of central relevance to society and to policy. A wide range of such topics, ranging from climate change to exogenous events, is suggested.

Formal Strategic Planning, Operating Environment, Size, Sector and Performance: Evidence from the UK's Manufacturing SMEs

The relationship between strategic planning and firm performance has long interested strategic management researchers. In the past decade, this research effort has slowed down, while strategic planning has gained greater popularity among managers. However, some academics dispute the usefulness of strategic planning, particularly in turbulent environments. This paper examines the following key research questions that are relevant to both practice and theory. First, the relationship between the formality of strategic planning (conceptualised by considering whether firms have written strategic plans and the level of correspondence between the written strategic plan and the normative planning process) and a wide range of performance measures. Second, the relationship between three contingency factors – size, sector and environment, in addition to the incidence of formal planning and the level of formality. Of great interest are the effects of munificence and turbulence. The results suggest that the link between strategic planning formality and performance is tenuous. Nevertheless, managers tend to deploy strategic planning widely in difficult market environments. The conclusion is that strategic planning is perceived to enhance a firms survival chances, but not necessarily its short-term performance.

Experience‐based learning in innovation and production

How can we model and document the impact of experience in product innovation? We use data on the innovation and production histories of 294 product platforms to explore experience-based learning. We extend learning curve concepts from their traditional domain the production process into the product innovation process to build and test a richer, quantitative model of learning. The results suggest that learning occurs differently in the innovation process than in production. They also suggest that how and where a firm learns depend in part on the complexity of product components and sub-systems. Finally, we discuss the competitive implications for product innovation.

Strategic Leadership in the Business School: Keeping one Step Ahead

List of figures List of tables Preface Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: global financial crisis: future challenges for strategic leadership, Deans and business schools 2. The business school landscape: trends and dilemmas 3. Business schools as professional organisations (professional service firms) 4. The leadership process in business schools 5. Strategic leadership in practice: leading the strategic process in three top business schools 6. Strategic leadership in practice: the role of the Dean 7. Learning from the trenches: personal reflections on Deanship Bibliography Index.