What Is Strategic Management and Why Do We Need It: Theoretical Foundations of Strategic Management

In the second chapter, a sound understanding of strategic management and its core concepts, definitions, processes, and applications is provided. This is done by a review of relevant strategic management literature. Firstly, the applied methodology for the literature analysis is presented. This section provides an overview on the exhaustive range of approaches and understandings of the strategic management discipline, academic, and practice literature has developed. Included is an overview of historical developments of strategic management from early ancient concepts to modern strategic management. Further, fundamental concepts and three core theories of strategic management, i.e., market-based view, resource-based view, and the institution-based view, are discussed. The chapter also considers arguments opposing and supporting strategic management’s entitlement to exist. Furthermore, the process of strategic management with its four core process steps is introduced. Additionally, the answer to the research question is prepared by introducing factors that affect strategic management, such as institutional factors, market/industry factors, and organizational factors. Eventually, the strategic management process of multinational corporations in the field of tension between internal and external forces is debated along the two dimensions—structure and actors. Furthermore, procedural justice is discussed as organizational response to ensure efficiency in the strategic management process of multinational corporations as well as coordination and control mechanisms as enabler of multinational corporations’ strategic management processes.