Abstract: This inductive theory-building study examines how early-stage start-ups develop strategy when uncertainty exists about all relevant aspects of the new venture. We build on and extend Weick’s (1993) ideas about the cognitive and social factors that facilitate the dynamic reconstruction of meanings and structures under conditions of extreme uncertainty. Using real-time observations of strategy meetings in three early-stage technology start-ups, we induce theory about the role of sensemaking, and in particular, an ‘attitude of wisdom’ and ‘respectful interaction’ (Weick, 1993) in entrepreneurs’ identification, evaluation, and choice of strategic paths forward in their new ventures.

Abstract: The challenges of breakthrough innovation today often require the commitments of researchers from a variety of disciplines in diverse organizations, in order to access the technical knowledge and expertise required. As organizational boundaries morph and inter-organizational relationships become the norm, strategic management research can contribute to the success of these multilevel, inter-organizational, interdisciplinary research projects. In this study a team of interdisciplinary researchers assess a natural experiment between a university, a government agency and industry in order to learn how diverse organizations can better organize large multidisciplinary collaborations to transcend institutional and interdisciplinary boundaries, enhance innovative output, and optimize learning. Drawing from the management, team science, and communications literature, hypotheses are developed and data assessed using observations, document analysis, interviews, and a survey.

Abstract: While strategy process research has illuminated the “front end” of strategy formulation and implementation in the strategy process, it has dedicated far less attention to the “back end” of communicating strategic change to the market. Drawing on strategy-as-practice research, we explore how firms discursively construct the innovativeness of new products as the central outcome of strategic change. In a longitudinal case study of Apple’s communication in the music market, we identify three bundles of discursive practices—leveling, linking, and leaping—that construct the innovativeness of new products as a form of “elastic communication” between familiarity and novelty. Furthermore, our findings indicate that these episodes of discursive practices appear repeatedly and constitute a continuous process of discursive construction of innovativeness.

Abstract: Prior research points to firms’ strategic flexibility as the ability to adapt quickly to environment changes, and particularly to CEOs’ roles in either enhancing or inhibiting firms’ strategic flexibility. This paper develops theory on how CEOs learn to become more flexible over time, and on the specific roles of the organizational context in this process. Drawing from motivated reasoning insights, this paper outlines four cognitive motivational states, as well as the influence of the organizational context in order to explain when and how decision-makers learn to develop greater strategic flexibility through repeated engagement in reflective reasoning over time. Contributions are made to research concerned with upper echelons and adaptive managerial cognition.