Robert P. Wright

Eliciting Cognitions of Strategizing Using Advanced Repertory Grids in a World Constructed and Reconstructed

Previous application of the repertory grid technique in the strategy field has been noteworthy. However, all have been imprisoned by their adherence to strict element choice based on grid protocol. Elements in past studies have either focused on all competitor companies, or all strategic decisions, or all decision makers, or all strategic issues, inter alia, in an effort to learn more about how strategists see, interpret, and make sense of their strategy experiences. This research note outlines how current strategy research can be advanced by the use of more heterogeneous elements for grid applications, hence allowing researchers to go deeper into eliciting more complex strategic cognitions on how strategy is crafted and recrafted in a world constructed and reconstructed.

Emotionalizing Strategy Research with the Repertory Grid Technique: Modifications and Extensions to a Robust Procedure for Mapping Strategic Knowledge

Developments in the social neurosciences over the past two decades have rendered problematic the main knowledge elicitation techniques currently in use by strategy researchers, as a basis for revealing actors’ mental representations of strategic knowledge. Extant elicitation techniques were advanced during an era when cognitive scientists and organizational researchers alike were preoccupied with the basic information of processing limitations of decision makers and means of addressing them, predicated on an outmoded conception of strategists as affect-free, cognitive misers. The need to adapt these techniques to enable the investigation of the emotional content and structure of actors’ mental representations is now a pressing priority for the advancement of theory, research, and practice pertaining to several interrelated areas of strategic management, from dynamic capabilities development, to upper echelons theory, to strategic consensus formation. Accordingly, in this chapter, we report the findings of two studies that investigated the feasibility of adapting the repertory grid, a robust method, widely known and well used in strategic management, for this purpose. Study 1 elicited a series of commonly mentioned strategic issues (the elements) from a sample of senior managers similar in composition to the sample recruited to the second study. Study 2 participants evaluated the elements elicited in Study 1 in relation to a series of researcher-supplied bipolar attributes (the constructs), based on the well-known affective circumplex model of human emotions. In line with expectations, a series of vector-based multivariate analyses revealed a number of interesting similarities and variations among participants in terms of the basic structure and emotional salience of the issues under consideration.

Exploring the evaluation framework of strategic information systems using repertory grid technique: a cognitive perspective from chief information officers

This study aims at developing an evaluation framework of strategic information systems (SIS) and evaluating the SIS planning and implementation by using a cognitive approach called the repertory grid technique. The findings are based on in-depth interviews with chief information officers (CIOs) involved with SIS developments in their organisations. This exploratory study builds on a cognitive methodology and enables us to develop the evaluation framework of SIS within the CIOs mind. In a practical viewpoint, we evaluated the effectiveness of the essential activities in the SIS planning and implementation. Results showed that activities on analysing industry and environment, analysing information system weakness and strength, formulating SIS strategy, identifying SIS initiatives, prioritising and allocating resources for SIS, documenting SIS, and liaising with top management team are well performed.

Book Review: Ketchen, D. J., Jr., & Bergh, D. D. (Eds.). (2005). Research methodology in strategy and management, Vol. 2. Oxford, UK: Elsevier, JAI

This book makes an important contribution to the strategic management field by addressing key methodological issues, insights, and challenges involved with the changing landscapes and advancements of our time (Hitt, Boyd, & Li, 2004). As the editors point out in their opening chapter, ‘‘the book series seeks to bridge the gap between what researchers know and what they need to know about methodology’’ to better understand how organizations act and perform. The 11 chapters in this book definitely live up to this promise and make for highly recommended reading (and practice) for researchers looking to strengthen their methodological rigor and to complement their existing methods toolkit in triangulating new insights to important strategic areas of research. Each chapter, written by experts in the field, presents cutting-edge insights on their chosen topic and encourages the reader to think beyond the issues addressed. The contents of these chapters are stimulating, engaging, and thought provoking, written in a style that is well crafted and easy to understand. The chapters can be read standalone or in sequence, but much is gained by reading this book in the order the editors have masterfully arranged. First is a blueprint of the volume arranged into three parts: five chapters look at major Challenges & Opportunities inherent in particular content areas, three chapters address Key Ontological & Epistemological Issues in strategic management context (these chapters are more reflective and philosophical), and three chapters focus on the How for strategy researchers in using particular methods. Yet the entire volume is not structured around this framework. The genius of this book is the deliberate arrangement of the chapters in the order that they appear—taking the reader on a journey of discovery and rediscovery from one methodological corner of strategy to the next. It is a breathtaking read that will stretch your thinking about research methods in strategy and management to a whole new level. Ketchen and Bergh should be commended not just for their ability to bring together a powerhouse of key contributors but for their careful and clever masterful arrangement and flow of the chapters that is quite compelling. The opening chapter by Barney and Mackey provides an intriguing look at the methodological challenges and opportunities in testing Resource-based Theory—an area that has received relatively little attention. The chapter focuses on the central tenants of the theory in that resources only have the potential to generate economic value if they are used to help an organization create and implement strategies and that resources can be a source of sustained competitive advantage if they possess attributes that are costly to imitate. The authors provide exemplary evidence from the literature where scholars have been able to test the theory by linking specific resources and capabilities to specific strategies. In developing the field, the authors encourage scholars to ‘‘get inside’’ firms and engage more at the level of resources through more primary data collection rather than the overreliance on publicly available secondary sources. They further advocate the need to investigate the competitive implications and importance of strategy implementations—another area rarely addressed in resource-based research. Organizational Research Methods Volume 11 Number 4 October 2008 855-859 10.1177/1094428107301443