SAGE Strategy series – serie

`An important and extremely welcome addition to the strategic management field. In this book the author builds on the work of an emerging community of scholars to lay out theoretical and methodological underpinnings of an activity-based framework for applying the practice lens to strategy' - Academy of Management Review

`Paula Jarzabkowski has astutely signaled an agenda for future scholarship that will no doubt fuel the continued growth of this subfield' - Organization Studies

`Pioneering work. As the first book in the new strategy-as-practice field, it offers readers both innovative models and exemplary field research' - Richard Whittington, Professor of Strategic Management, Said Business School, Oxford

'Extends and develops the emerging fields of strategy and practice as well as activity theory. It also demonstrates empirically, using University settings, how activity theory is itself bounded by the wider contexts of organisation, embedded routines and the heavy hand of history' - David C. Wilson, University of Warwick

`An insightful book that would be of use to people interested in the actual practices of strategy and strategizing' - Organization

Bridging the gap between what managers actually do and organizational strategies, this book provides an activity-based framework for studying strategy as practice, with empirical evidence to illustrate the dynamics of this framework in real terms.

`A major contribution of this exciting book is the perspective of the subsidiary manager operating network.... In its extreme version this means that all managers are subsidiary managers… challenging those who still view multinationals as hierarchies. With exceptional clarity of thought and writing, Julian Birkinshaw stakes out the ground as a major new thinker in the fields of international business and strategic management ' - Alan Rugman, Templeton College, University of Oxford

Much current literature on globalization and competition focuses on the external environment in which firms operate. Julian Birkinshaw's book looks within international firms at the dynamics that affect their growth and position. Are local managers seizing power from the centre? Is `glocialization' the inevitable result of globalization?

Based on fresh case evidence gathered in Europe and North America, the findings in this book about multi-national firms and managers make a significant contribution to some of the key debates on the transfer of knowledge in firms; the resource-based view; and the network forms of organization. The initiatives of local managers reflect local knowledge, skills and resources and at the same time impact of the distribution of power in the wider organization. By taking as his perspective that of the subsidiary manager operating in a network, Julian Birkinshaw extends the implications of his findings to all managers in organizations and challenges those who still view organizations as hierarchies.

Why don't best practices spread within firms?

What exactly is sticky knowledge?

Having recognized that knowledge assets are rapidly becoming their most precious source of competitive advantage, a large number of organizations are now attempting to transfer best practices. Yet best practices still remain stubbornly immobile.

Sticky Knowledge reveals that the transfer of practices is a complex phenomenon, and demonstrates the range of barriers to transferring best practices within the firm. Written in a brief and accessible format, Gabriel Szulanski defines the popular concept of stickiness and its operationalization, providing a roadmap for understanding and further researching this topical issue.

Taking a fresh look at accepted wisdom, and presenting research findings that conflict with some established views, the book will be essential reading for academics and students addressing issues related to knowledge and the firm. Practising managers and MBA students will also find it of immense value.

`I found myself questioning my current views on globalization and international competition. In so doing, I have come to a fuller understanding of the dynamics of the process and have enjoyed a unique view into the minds of the decision makers' - Organization Studies

`This book is an unusual and valuable addition to the literatures of international business' - International Business Review

`The first interesting feature of this study is the selection of industries.... The book provides some valuable insight into the geographic distribution of the world in the mind of the chief executives… a matter of interest not only to industry and academia, but also to policy makers.... The classification of international strategies deducted from the interview data is another contribution that book makes.... The book has achieved its main goal of linking theory and practical experience [and] provides interesting reading.... The book translates the logic of the industry world into a nice theory leaving it up to the reader to accept or reject the accompanying business ethics and values' - Prometheus

`A highly effective analysis of the changing patterns of competition viewed from an international perspective. There is a plethora of books on globalization and internationalization of industries, but most are long on words and speculation, but short on hard evidence and perspective. Here, the approach of the authors is not to argue that the world is becoming more (or less) global, but to provide a valuable insight into just how these forces are shaping industries, whether managers can influence these forces and what they might mean for those involve'- Charles Baden-Fuller, City Business School, Series Editor

This book uses in-depth current data from a range of international business, and provides an important new framework for understanding international competitive systems and formulating international business strategy.

`I found myself questioning my current views on globalization and international competition. In so doing, I have come to a fuller understanding of the dynamics of the process and have enjoyed a unique view into the minds of the decision makers' - Organization Studies

`This book is an unusual and valuable addition to the literatures of international business' - International Business Review

`The first interesting feature of this study is the selection of industries.... The book provides some valuable insight into the geographic distribution of the world in the mind of the chief executives… a matter of interest not only to industry and academia, but also to policy makers.... The classification of international strategies deducted from the interview data is another contribution that book makes.... The book has achieved its main goal of linking theory and practical experience [and] provides interesting reading.... The book translates the logic of the industry world into a nice theory leaving it up to the reader to accept or reject the accompanying business ethics and values' - Prometheus

`A highly effective analysis of the changing patterns of competition viewed from an international perspective. There is a plethora of books on globalization and internationalization of industries, but most are long on words and speculation, but short on hard evidence and perspective. Here, the approach of the authors is not to argue that the world is becoming more (or less) global, but to provide a valuable insight into just how these forces are shaping industries, whether managers can influence these forces and what they might mean for those involve'- Charles Baden-Fuller, City Business School, Series Editor

This book uses in-depth current data from a range of international business, and provides an important new framework for understanding international competitive systems and formulating international business strategy.

`I have no doubt this book will be read and used time and again by any scholar working within the evolutionary approach to organizations. I believe that it will also be of great interest to strategy scholars' - Management

`Rodolphe Durand has a compelling message for the growing community of evolutionary researchers in organization studies. Evolutionary researchers need to attend more carefully to historical and contemporary debates in the biological sciences if they are to avoid false tracks and simplisitic analogies. Durand offers here the foundations of a distinctive and authentic evolutionary theory that takes organizations seriously for what they are' - Richard Whittington, Oxford University

`This book fills an important gap in the study of organizations and strategy from an evolutionary perspective. It offers a synthetic approach to evolutionary analysis with grounded empirical examples that graduate students and seasoned scholars alike will find immensely useful. Durand's OES model, rooted in a critical examination of philosophical and scientific writings on evolution, is particularly promising and provides a valuable guidepost for future research on organizations and strategic management' - Michael Lounsbury, University of Alberta

How is economic evolutionary theory, in which organisations evolve according to environmental selection, reconciled with evidence of strategic management?

This book is the first of its kind to propose a solution to this theoretical puzzle and engage readers in a balanced understanding of organizational evolution.

Rodolphe Durand embarks upon a fresh assessment of the literature. His discoveries provide the foundation for a new theory of organizational selection and an organizational evolution and strategy model that reconciles economic evolution with strategic intentionality.

Chapters include an examination of the work by Lamarck, Darwin and Spencer; a constructive appraisal of evolutionary theory applied to organisations and a summary of how the organizational evolution and strategy model will affect future theory and research.