Looking at the Trees to See the Forest: Construal Level Shift in Strategic Problem Framing and Formulation
References
- (2022) The relations of reflective and intuitive thinking styles with task performance: A meta‐analysis. Personnel Psych. 75(2):295–319.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2016) Cognitive load and strategic sophistication. J. Econom. Behav. Organ. 125:162–178.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) Developing problem representations in organizations: A synthesis across literatures and an integrative framework. J. Management, ePub ahead of print November 12, https://doi.org/10.1177/01492063241291532.Google Scholar
- (2004) Strategic decision comprehensiveness and new product development outcomes in new technology ventures. Acad. Management J. 47(4):583–597.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2013) Microfoundations of strategic problem formulation. Strategic Management J. 34(2):197–214.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2018) Alleviating the plunging-in bias, elevating strategic problem-solving. Acad. Management Learn. Ed. 17(3):279–301.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1952) Conceptual Framework of Psychology (University of Chicago Press, Chicago).Google Scholar
- (2013) There are many ways to see the forest for the trees: A tour guide for abstraction. Perspective Psych. Sci. 8(5):501–520.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2006) Long ago it was meant to be: The interplay between time, construal, and fate beliefs. Personality Soc. Psych. Bull. 32(8):1050–1058.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2008) Strategy as a wicked problem. Harvard Bus. Rev. 86(5):99–106.Google Scholar
- (2024a) Theory-driven strategic management decisions. Strategy Sci. 9(4):382–396.Link, Google Scholar
- (2020) A scientific approach to entrepreneurial decision making: Evidence from a randomized control trial. Management Sci. 66(2):564–586.Link, Google Scholar
- (2024b) A scientific approach to entrepreneurial decision‐making: Large‐scale replication and extension. Strategic Management J. 45(6):1209–1237.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2018) I’m not mopping the floors, I’m putting a man on the moon”: How NASA leaders enhanced the meaningfulness of work by changing the meaning of work. Admin. Sci. Quart. 63(2):323–369.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2018) Individual and organizational antecedents of strategic foresight: A representational approach. Strategy Sci. 3(3):513–532.Link, Google Scholar
- (2016) Mental representation and the discovery of new strategies. Strategic Management J. 37(10):2031–2049.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2020) A contingency theory of representational complexity in organizations. Organ. Sci. 31(5):1198–1219.Link, Google Scholar
- (2024) A protocol mechanism for solving the “right” strategic problem. Strategic Management Rev. 5(3):273–312.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1963) A Behavioral Theory of the Firm (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ).Google Scholar
- (2009) Conceptualizing and measuring intuition: A review of recent trends. Hodgkinson G, Ford JK, eds. International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, vol. 24 (Wiley, Chichester, UK), 1–40.Google Scholar
- (2022) Theory‐based learning and experimentation: How strategists can systematically generate knowledge at the edge between the known and the unknown. Strategic Management J. 43(7):1287–1318.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2009) Entrepreneurs as theorists: On the origins of collective beliefs and novel strategies. Strategic Entrepreneurship J. 3(2):127–146.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2015) The microfoundations movement in strategy and organization theory. Ann. Management Rev. 9(1):575–632.Google Scholar
- (2016) Problem‐formulation and problem‐solving in self‐organized communities: How modes of communication shape project behaviors in the free open‐source software community. Strategic Management J. 37(13):2589–2610.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1999) A study of how individuals solve complex and ill-structured problems. Policy Sci. 32(3):225–245.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2012) The behavioral theory of the firm: Assessment and prospects. Ann. Management J. 6(1):1–40.Google Scholar
- (2000) Looking forward and looking backward: Cognitive and experiential search. Admin. Sci. Quart. 45(1):113–137.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2005) Strategy making in novel and complex worlds: The power of analogy. Strategic Management J. 26(8):691–712.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2008) Why heuristics work. Perspectives Psych. Sci. 3(1):20–29.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1991) Probabilistic mental models: A Brunswikian theory of confidence. Psych. Rev. 98(4):506–528.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2022) Smart heuristics for individuals, teams, and organizations. Annu. Rev. Organ. Psych. Organ. Behav. 9:171–198.Crossref, Google Scholar
- Gilbert DT, Fiske ST, Lindzey G, eds. (1998) The Handbook of Social Psychology, vol. 1 (McGraw-Hill, New York).Google Scholar
- (2001) Chunking mechanisms in human learning. Trends Cognitive Sci. 5(6):236–243.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2003) Organizational Learning from Performance Feedback: A Behavioral Perspective on Innovation and Change (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA).Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2021) Inconceivable! Possibilistic thinking and the sociocognitive underpinnings of entrepreneurial responses to grand challenges. Organ. Theory 2(2):26317877211005780.Google Scholar
- (2022) Unpacking “ideas” in creative work: A multidisciplinary review. Ann. Management Rev. 16(2):621–656.Google Scholar
- (2013) When seeing the forest reduces the need for trees: The role of construal level in attraction to choice. J. Experiment. Soc. Psych. 49(4):676–683.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2013) Definitions, variants, and causes of nonadherence with medication: A challenge for tailored interventions. Patient Preference Adherence 7:675–682.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2009) Lessons from a faraway land: The effect of spatial distance on creative cognition. J. Experiment. Soc. Psych. 45(5):1127–1131.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2020) Organizational structure, information processing, and decision-making: A retrospective and road map for research. Ann. Management Rev. 14(1):267–302.Google Scholar
- (2018) The growth of the firm: An attention‐based view. Strategic Management J. 39(6):1779–1800.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2009) Conditions for intuitive expertise: A failure to disagree. Amer. Psych. 64(6):515–526.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) Scaling up analogical innovation with crowds and AI. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 116(6):1870–1877.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2006) What did they really say? Organ. Res. Methods 9(2):202–220.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2020) Cognitive and structural antecedents of innovation: A large-sample study. Strategy Sci. 5(2):71–97.Link, Google Scholar
- (2021) The Premonition: A Pandemic Story (W.W. Norton, New York).Google Scholar
- (1981) Formulating strategic problems: Empirical analysis and model development. Strategic Management J. 2(1):61–75.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1980) Organizational problem formulation: An empirical study. Admin. Sci. Quart. 25(1):102–119.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2018) The differential impact of knowledge depth and knowledge breadth on creativity over individual careers. Acad. Management J. 61(5):1741–1763.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1958) Organizations (Wiley, New York).Google Scholar
- (2012) Construal level mind-sets moderate self-and social stereotyping. J. Personality Soc. Psych. 102(1):51–68.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2012) Temporal distance and discrimination: An audit study in academia. Psych. Sci. 23(7):710–717.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1976) The structure of “unstructured” decision processes. Admin. Sci. Quart. 21(2):246–275.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1974) On systemic problem solving and the errors of the third kind. Systems Res. 19(6):383–393.Google Scholar
- (2014) Construing creativity: The how and why of recognizing creative ideas. J. Experiment. Soc. Psych. 51:81–87.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2018) Strategizing before strategic decision making. Strategy Sci. 3(4):592–605.Link, Google Scholar
- (2004) A knowledge-based theory of the firm—The problem-solving perspective. Organ. Sci. 15(6):617–632.Link, Google Scholar
- (2007) The problem of creating and capturing value. Strategic Organ. 5(3):211–225.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2011) Attention to attention. Organ. Sci. 22(5):1286–1296.Link, Google Scholar
- (2020) Decision weaving: Forming novel, complex strategy in entrepreneurial settings. Strategic Management J. 41(12):2275–2314.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) Finding a road less traveled: Combining analysis and intuition to develop novel problem formulations. Strategic Management J. 45(11):2189–2392.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2022) Getting to the root of things: The role of epistemic motivation and construal levels in strategic problem formulation. Strategy Sci. 7(4):284–299.Link, Google Scholar
- (2023) Healthcare hackathons as open innovation. Nature Rev. Bioengrg. 1(9):610–611.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2001) Problem Seeking: An Architectural Programming Primer (John Wiley & Sons, New York).Google Scholar
- (2018) Renewing research on problemistic search—A review and research agenda. Ann. Management Rev. 12(1):208–251.Google Scholar
- (2015) Seeing the forest for the trees: Exploratory learning, mobile technology, and knowledge workers’ role integration behaviors. Acad. Management J. 58(3):739–762.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2013) What happens why? Psychological distance and focusing on causes versus consequences of events. J. Personality Soc. Psych. 104(3):457–472.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2015) How words transcend and pictures immerse: On the association between medium and level of construal. Soc. Psych. Personality Sci. 6(2):123–130.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2003) Balancing search and stability: Interdependencies among elements of organizational design. Management Sci. 49(3):290–311.Link, Google Scholar
- (2011) Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters (Crown Business, New York).Google Scholar
- (2016) Medical noncompliance: The most ignored national epidemic. J. Amer. Osteopath. Assoc. 116(8):554–555.Google Scholar
- (2009) Different ways of looking at unpleasant truths: How construal levels influence information search. Organ. Behav. Human. Decision Processing 110(1):36–44.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2017) Is that an opportunity? An attention model of top managers opportunity beliefs for strategic action. Strategic Management J. 38(3):626–644.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2021) When putting work off pays off: The curvilinear relationship between procrastination and creativity. Acad. Management J. 64(3):772–798.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2005) Speed and search: Designing organizations for turbulence and complexity. Organ. Sci. 16(2):101–122.Link, Google Scholar
- (1962) The architecture of complexity. Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 106(6):467–482.Google Scholar
- (2019) Don’t get it misconstrued: Executive construal-level shifts and flexibility in the upper echelons. Acad. Management Rev. 44(4):871–895.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) How does chunk help working memory? J. Experiment. Psych. Learn. Memory Cognition 45(1):37–55.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2010) Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psych. Rev. 117(2):440–463.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2007) Construal levels and psychological distance: Effects on representation, prediction, evaluation, and behavior. J. Consumer Psych. 17(2):83–95.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) The theory-based view and strategic pivots: The effects of theorization and experimentation on the type and nature of pivots. Strategy Sci. 9(4):433–460.Link, Google Scholar
- (2015) The floor is nearer than the sky: How looking up or down affects construal level. J. Consumer Res. 41(6):1358–1371.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2016) Crossroads—Identifying viable “need–Solution pairs”: Problem solving without problem formulation. Organ. Sci. 27(1):207–221.Link, Google Scholar
- (2006) Seeing the forest when entry is unlikely: Probability and the mental representation of events. J. Experiment. Psych. General 135(4):641–653.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2017) Construal level theory in organizational research. Morgeson FP, eds. Annu. Rev. Organ. Psych. Organ. Behav. 4:367–400.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2023) The theory‐based view: Entrepreneurial microfoundations, resources, and choices. Strategic Management J. 44(12):2922–2949.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2023) Entrepreneurs as scientists: A pragmatist approach to producing value out of uncertainty. Acad. Management Rev. 48(3):379–408.Crossref, Google Scholar

