How strategy‐making processes can make a difference

Strategy‐making is usually portrayed in dichotomous terms: rational vs. incremental, or formulation vs. implementation. It may, however, be more valid to think of organizations as entities capable of developing resources and skills in multiple strategy‐making process modes. This paper first develops measures to identify firms with different levels and types of strategy‐making process ‘capability’ then examines empirically their relationships to five dimensions of perceived performance, using data collected from a sample of 285 top managers. Results indicate that firms with high process capability–the simultaneous use of multiple strategy‐making process modes–outperfom single‐mode or less process‐capable organizations.