Research Focus
From Rise
RISE Management Research contributes to research on strategic management and entrepreneurship, in particular in the context of innovation and change. Innovation and change are particularly promising contexts of research because they explicitly address the inherently open, uncertain and ambiguous nature of strategy making, business creation and company development:
First, RISE Management Research explores how and why companies make strategy, as well as how and why they develop particular practices of strategy making. More specifically, we study how these approaches to strategy making are identified, established, stabilized and changed in the context of major strategic events, as well as over time. Through this research focus, we contribute to strategy process research (References), which investigates how and why particular strategies are developed within given strategy formation processes. Furthermore, we contribute to the practice turn in strategy research (References), which investigates the situated activities and embedded practices of strategy making. We learn from our research that companies develop their firm-specific, idiosyncratic approaches to strategy making, which implies that they rely on inherently contingent and fragile strategizing practices. Those have to be constantly enacted and shaped in the course of managerial and entrepreneurial action.
Second, RISE Management Research explores how and why companies define and use particular strategic references in strategy making. In particular, we study how fundamental strategic references with respect to success, performance, innovation, quality and identity are defined, confirmed, explained, justified and adapted. Through this research focus, we contribute to strategy process research (References) which emphasizes the importance of the strategic and structural context of strategy formation processes. This context focuses and disciplines the identification, evaluation and realization of strategic initiatives. Furthermore, we contribute to strategic entrepreneurship research (References). Strategic entrepreneurship investigates the particularities of strategic references in entrepreneurial and corporate contexts, as well as the translation and transformation processes between these contexts. We learn from our research that managerial and entrepreneurial agency in strategy making continuously enacts and shapes the central strategic references, while at the same time enacting and shaping particular issues and local challenges.
Third, RISE Management Research thus studies how and why strategic references and strategizing practices are collectivized, stabilized, routinized and changed over time. In particular, we investigate how entrepreneurial and managerial agency contributes to the stabilization, routinization and change of strategy making. We conduct our research in the context of technological innovation, business creation, company development and strategic change. Through this research focus, we contribute to strategy research (References) on competence building, dynamic capabilities, knowledge creation and organizational routines. This contributions have special relevance for strategy process (References), strategic change (References) and strategy practice (References) research. We learn from our research that it is the continuous stabilization, routinization and deconstruction of idiosyncratic strategic references and firm-specific repertoires of strategy making, which underlie these different processes and activities.
Fourth, RISE Management Research investigates how and why the routinization and change of firm-specific modes of strategy making and idiosyncratic repertoires of strategizing practices and strategic references relate to organizational performance. Through this research focus, we explicitly contribute to one of the fundamental theme of strategy and entrepreneurship research, in fact, to the description, understanding, interpretation and explanation of organizational performance, as well as performance differences between companies and industries. We learn from our research that it is often too simplistic to assume an “objective” reference for the evaluation of performance as each company has its firm-specific reference system, which defines, prioritizes, measures and operationalizes performance. In parallel, we find that the particular context of the company enacts these performance references (including the expectations of the owners, strategic partners, investors and of the financial markets).
Fifth, RISE Management Research intends to open up the black box of “entrepreneurial and managerial agency”, studying how and why entrepreneurial and / or managerial agency is organized and enabled in particular companies and situations. Through this research focus, we address a topic, which is normally taken-for-granted in management, strategy and entrepreneurship research. In parallel, it relates to the influential contribution of various classical positions (References), which reflect the specific value creation, the practices and the discipline of management and entrepreneurship. We learn from our research that entrepreneurial and managerial agency is organized in highly idiosyncratic, firm-specific ways, moving between dense or dispersed constellations of actors, involving many or few people, over one or multiple layers, incorporating different interest structures, both internal and external to the company. Furthermore, we find that entrepreneurial and managerial agency is stabilizing, adapting and changing itself over time.
