Torn Between Admiration and Distrust: European Strategy Research and the American Challenge

European strategy research is a relatively late entrant into the field of strategic management. This has put the European strategy researchers at a disadvantage vis-à-vis their American counterparts when it comes to competing for scarce publication space in “top” journals. Many European researchers have responded to the challenge by adopting research paradigms that are dominant in American strategy research, but others argue that Europe should maintain its own distinct research tradition. In this paper, I argue that European ambivalence toward market-based competition for scholarly reputation combined with centralized funding of research is responsible for this division of opinion. However, I also argue that institutional differences between Europe and the United States contribute to a diversity in strategy research that should be welcomed rather than suppressed.