Strategy Experiments in Nonexperimental Settings: Challenges of Theory, Inference, and Persuasion in Business Strategy

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1287/stsc.2024.0164

References

  • Adner R (2013) The Wide Lens: What Successful Innovators See that Others Miss (Penguin Random House, New York).Google Scholar
  • Adner R (2017) Ecosystem as structure: An actionable construct for strategy. J. Management 43(1):39–58.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Adner R (2021) Winning the Right Game: How to Disrupt, Defend, and Deliver in a Changing World (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Adner R (2024) Grand challenges through an ecosystem lens: The case of Operation Warp Speed. Working paper, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.Google Scholar
  • Adner R, Levinthal D (2004a) What is not a real option: Considering boundaries for the application of real options to business strategy. Acad. Management Rev. 29(1):74–85.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Adner R, Levinthal D (2004b) Real options and real tradeoffs. Acad. Management Rev. 29(1):120–126.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Arthur WB (1989) Competing technologies, increasing returns, and lock-in by historical events. Econom. J. 99(394):116–131.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bacon F (1889) Novum Organum. Fowler T, ed. (Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK).Google Scholar
  • Bajari P, Burdick B, Imbens G, Masoero L, McQueen J, Richardson T, Rosen I (2023) Experimental design in marketplaces. Statist. Sci. 38(3):458–477.Google Scholar
  • Bechky B (2003) Sharing meaning across occupational communities: The transformation of understanding on the production floor. Organ. Sci. 14(3):312–330.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Belkin M, Hsu D, Ma S, Mandal S (2019) Reconciling modern machine-learning practice and the classic bias-variance trade-off. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 116(32):15849–15854.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bellman R (1961) Adaptive Control Processes: A Guided Tour (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ).Google Scholar
  • Blank S (2020) The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products That Win (John Wiley & Son, Hoboken, NJ).Google Scholar
  • Bower JL (1970) Managing the Resource Allocation Process: A Study of Corporate Planning and Investment Decision (Harvard Business School Press, Boston).Google Scholar
  • Burgelman R (1983) A process model of the interaction of strategic behavior, corporate context, and the concept of strategy. Acad. Management Rev. 8(1):67–70.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Camuffo A, Cordova A, Gamberdella A, Spina C (2020) A scientific approach to entrepreneurial decision making: Evidence from a randomized control trial. Management Sci. 66(2):564–586.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Choi J, Levinthal D (2023) Wisdom in the wild: Generalization and adaptive dynamics. Organ. Sci. 34(3):1073–1089.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Clark DR, Hunt RA (2024) The challenge and opportunity of a quantum mechanics metaphor in organization and management research: A response to Shelef, Wuebker, and Barney’s “Heisenberg effects in experiments on business ideas.” Acad. Management Rev., ePub ahead of print July 8, https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2024.0134.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Collins J (2001) Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t (Harper Collins, New York).Google Scholar
  • Cook T, Campbell D (1977) Quasi-Experimentation: Design and Analysis Issues for Field Settings (Houghton Mifflin, Boston).Google Scholar
  • Ehrig T, Schmidt J (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.Google Scholar
  • Eisenhardt K, Bourgeois LJ III (1988) Politics of strategic decision making in high-velocity environments: Toward a midrange theory. Acad. Management J. 31(4):737–770.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Feldman E (2014) Legacy divestitures: Motives and implications. Organ. Sci. 25(3):815–832.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Felin T, Zenger T (2017) The theory-based view: Economic actors as theorists. Strategy Sci. 2(4):258–271.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Fisher R (1925) Statistical Methods for Research Workers (Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh, UK).Google Scholar
  • Gavetti G, Levinthal D (2000) Looking forward and looking backward: Cognitive and experiential search. Admin. Sci. Quart. 45(1):113–137.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Gavetti G, Posen H, Schmidt J (2023) Escaping the cognitive cage: Can a theory be a basis for competitive advantage? Working paper, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.Google Scholar
  • Ghemawat P (1991) Commitment: The Dynamic of Strategy (Free Press, New York).Google Scholar
  • Hannan MT, Freeman J (1989) Organizational Ecology (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Hastie T, Tibshirani R, Friedman J (2001) The Elements of Statistical Learning: Data Mining, Inference, and Prediction (Springer, New York).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Hutzschenreuter T, Kleindienst I (2006) Strategy-process research: What have we learned and what is still to be explored. J. Management 32(6):673–720.Google Scholar
  • Jacobides MG, Cennamo C, Gawer A (2018) Toward a theory of ecosystems. Strategic Management J. 39(8):2255–2276.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Johari R, Li H, Liskovich I, Weintraub G (2022) Experimental design in two-sided platforms: An analysis of bias. Management Sci. 68(10):7065–7791.Google Scholar
  • Kaplan S (2008) Framing contests: Strategy making under uncertainty. Organ. Sci. 19(5):729–752.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Kapoor R (2018) Ecosystems: Broadening the locus of value creation. J. Organ. Design 7(1):1–16.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Karp R (2023) Working within the digital implementation line: How organizations manipulate the process of piloting to shape the use and design of digital innovations. Working paper, Harvard Business School, Boston.Google Scholar
  • Kirtley J, O’Mahony S (2023) What is a pivot? Explaining when and how entrepreneurial firms decide to make strategic change and pivot. Strategic Management J. 44(1):197–230.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Kocak O, Puranam P, Levinthal D (2023) The dual challenge of search and coordination for organizational adaptation: How structures of influence matter. Organ. Sci. 32(2):851–869.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Levinthal DA (2017) Mendel in the C-suite: Design and the evolution of strategies. Strategy Sci. 2(4):282–287.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Levinthal DA (2021a) From arms to trees: Opportunity costs and path-dependence and the exploration-exploitation tradeoff. Strategy Sci. 6(4):331–337.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Levinthal DA (2021b) Evolutionary Processes and Organizational Adaptation: A Mendelian Perspective on Strategic Management (Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Levinthal DA, Wu B (2024) Resource redeployment and the pursuit of the new best use: Economic logic and organizational challenges. Strategy Sci., ePub ahead of print June 21, https://doi.org/10.1287/stsc.2022.0105.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • March J, Sproul L, Tamuz M (1991) Learning from samples of one or fewer. Organ. Sci. 2:1–13.Google Scholar
  • Miner A, Haunschild P (1995) Population-level learning. Brief A, Staw B, eds. Research in Organizational Behavior: An Annual Series of Analytical Essays and Critical Reviews, vol. 17 (JAI Press, Greenwich, CT), 115–166.Google Scholar
  • Pettigrew A (1985) The Awakening Giant: Continuity and Change in Imperial Chemical Industries (Basil Blackwell Press, Oxford, UK).Google Scholar
  • Polanyi M (1962) Personal Knowledge: Toward a Post-Critical Philosophy (University of Chicago Press, Chicago).Google Scholar
  • Pontikes E, Rindova V (2020) Shaping markets through temporal, constructive, and interactive agency. Strategy Sci. 5(3):149–159.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Porter M (1980) Competitive Strategy (Free Press, New York).Google Scholar
  • Ries E (2011) The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses (Crown, New York).Google Scholar
  • Shelef O, Wuebker R, Barney J (2024) Heisenberg effects in experiments on business ideas. Acad. Management Rev., ePub ahead of print February 13, https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2022.0051.Google Scholar
  • Shrout PE, Rodgers JL (2018) Psychology, science, and knowledge construction: Broadening perspectives from the replication crisis. Annual Rev. Psych. 69(1):487–510.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Sørensen J, Carroll G (2021) Making Great Strategy: Arguing for Organizational Advantage (Columbia University Press, New York).Google Scholar
  • Teece D (2007) Explaining dynamic capabilities: The nature and microfoundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance. Strategic Management J. 28:1319–1350.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Thorndike EL (1932) The Fundamentals of Learning (Teachers College Press, New York).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Woolgar SE (1988) Knowledge and Reflexivity: New Frontiers in the Sociology of Knowledge (SAGE, London).Google Scholar
  • Zellweger T, Zenger T (2023) Entrepreneurs as scientists: A pragmatist approach to producing value out of uncertainty. Acad. Management Rev. 48(3):379–408.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
INFORMS site uses cookies to store information on your computer. Some are essential to make our site work; Others help us improve the user experience. By using this site, you consent to the placement of these cookies. Please read our Privacy Statement to learn more.