The need for kaleidoscopic views in strategic management

Many strategic analyses favor a single discipline approach over multidisciplinary examinations which risks intellectual balkanization in the field of strategy. The more complex and long term a real-world strategic analysis is, the more integrated perspectives will be needed to develop a complete picture descriptively and prescriptively. As an illustration, I examine how the pharmaceutical giant Merck developed an innovative drug called Vioxx for arthritis pain during the 1990s. The long arc of this multifaceted case raises epistemic questions for the field of strategic management about how to develop holistic perspectives of complex real-world business situations. My Vioxx analysis shows that organizational contexts, mental models, personal agendas, leadership dynamics and other factors played key roles in this protracted saga, with important lessons for managers in other industries. This case underscores the need for more kaleidoscopic approaches in the field of strategy research to counter disciplinary fragmentation.