Business Strategy, Market Governance and Performance: Insights from a Case Study

The evidences, the paradoxes, the questions that emerge from academic research into the mechanisms by which businesses generate profits are at the centre of an important theoretical debate. A large body of literature in strategic management emphasizes a particular perspective or theory (namely, the industry- resource- and institution-based views), leading to the accumulation of research findings that are difficult to compare and integrate. The current streams of thinking on the sustainability of competitive advantages have missed the aim of giving a decisive and/or exclusive relevance to paradigms through which one is accustomed to study, interpret, or suggest interventions for the enterprise as a whole or some of its parts. It is not enough to call once more for a diversity of competing views: the authors recommend that research be designed in ways that enable multiple theoretical lenses of reality to be treated. The validity of theories will remain quite limited until we significantly consider the types of conditions to which the variety of organizations in the world today has been exposed. The case of Wal-Mart illustrates how a top-performing firm competes for resources to legitimate intentions and achievements in a global context.