Strategy Making and Evolutionary Organization Theory: Insights from Longitudinal Process Research

This paper proposes that strategy-making processes can be fruitfully integrated with evolutionary organization theory. An evolutionary research lens comprising three interrelated conceptual frameworks helps identify and analyze the role of strategy making in firm evolution at three levels of analysis: (1) company-environment interface, (2) company, and (3) intra-company. Longitudinal field-based research of Intel Corporations evolution (1968-2001) shows the usefulness of this research lens by shedding further light on potentially important inescapable dilemmas in the natural dynamics of organizational adaptation. The paper examines theoretical and practical implications of an evolutionary perspective on the role of resource allocation and strategic context determination in strategy making as an adaptive organizational capability.