Strategizing, Disequilibrium, and Profit [Hardcover]

This book starts from the proposition that frameworks used in business strategy lack realism because they are built on equilibrium-based foundations carried over from the domain of neoclassical economics. Mathews proposes instead a conceptual framework consistent with the turbulence found in real economies, and brings strategizing into conformity with such phenomena as innovation and technological change, network formation, capture of substitution effects in modular systems, and many other interesting features of modern economies that are passed over by mainstream equilibrium-based analysis. This new framework is based on the way firms assemble resources into a distinctive bundle, then build activities out of these resources to generate revenue, and link the resources to the activities through routines created and administered by management. [T]his is a book that should be read by anyone who seeks to contribute to the theory of the firm. Mathews' efforts to retain the valuable ideas and constructs of economic, strategic management, and entrepreneurship theory, and to incorporate them into a realistic and usable framework, are admirable. The sweeping scope of his framework will allow individual scholars to see and understand how their research fits into the evolving theory of the firm and where their scholarly efforts should be directed in the future. Both economists and organizational theorists will learn a great deal from this refreshing work. This book outlines a conceptual framework within which strategizing by firms takes place in the same conditions of turbulence that are found in the real economy. The framework accomodates strategizing around issues of innovation, networks formation, entrepreneurship, extension of value chains, and other phenomena that do not fit easily into conventional equilibrium-based settings.John A. Mathews is Professor of Strategy and Management at Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Sydney. He is the author of many studies of strl“f