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Strategic Management and the Exploration of Diversity

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Resource-Based and Evolutionary Theories of the Firm: Towards a Synthesis

Abstract

The field of Strategic Management has had as a primary mission the analysis of diversity of performance among firms. While most research in the field has shared this common agenda, the approach taken has varied. Researchers have tended to be divided by the level of analysis with which they approach the issue and by their assumptions about the rationality of individuals and firms. This essay applies an evolutionary perspective to explore this question of diversity. It is suggested that such a perspective not only is an useful means with which to approach this question, but that as a by-product it may help to unify the strategy literature which has faced these methodological divisions based on level of analysis and assumptions of individual and firm rationality.

This research was supported by the Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Center the wharton School and by a grant from the sloan Foundation to the Financial Institutions Center, also at the Wharton School. I thank Cynthia Montgomery for comments on a prior draft.

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  1. Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA

    Daniel A. Levinthal

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  1. Harvard Business School, USA

    Cynthia A. Montgomery

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Levinthal, D.A. (1995). Strategic Management and the Exploration of Diversity. In: Montgomery, C.A. (eds) Resource-Based and Evolutionary Theories of the Firm: Towards a Synthesis. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2201-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2201-0_2

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