From Resource Allocation to Strategy

Joseph L. Bower and Clark G. Gilbert have collected together some of the leading experts on strategy to examine how strategy is actually made by company managers across the several levels of an organization. Is strategy a coherent plan conceived at the top by a visionary leader, or is it formed by a series of smaller decisions, not always reflecting what top management has in mind? Often it is by examining how options for using resources are developed and selected, that we can see how a company's competitive position gets shaped. On the basis of this understanding, we can see better how these processes can be managed. The book's five sections examine how the resource allocation process works, how the way it works can lead a company into serious problems, how top management can intervene to fix these problem, and where the most recent thinking on these problems is headed. A fifth section contains assessments of this work by thought leaders in the fields of economics, competitive strategy, organizational behavior, and strategic management. The implications for those who study firms are considerable. Activity that is normally thought about in terms of substantive outcomes such as market share and revenue growth, or present value and internal rate of return, is seen to be inextricably related to organizational and administrative questions. The findings presented here should inform the research of economists, strategists, and behavioral scientists. Thoughtful executives and those who consult with them will also find the book provocative. The processes described are complex, but clear enough so that the way toward effective management is apparent. The models developed provide a basis for building the systems and organization necessary for today's competitive world.

Table of Contents:
SECTION I: INTRODUCTION TO THE RESOURCE ALLOCATION PROCESS ; 1. Linking Resource Allocation to Strategy ; 2. Modeling the Resource Allocation Process ; 3. The Role of Strategy Making in Organizational Evolution ; 4. Anomaly-Seeking Research: Thirty Years of Theory Development ; SECTION II: WHEN THE BOTTOM-UP PROCESS FAILS ; 5. When the Bottom-up Resource Allocation Process Fails ; 6. Customer Power, Strategic Investment, and the Failure of Leading Firms ; 7. No Exit: The Failure of Bottom-up Strategic Processes and the Role of Top-down Disinvestment ; 8. The Process of International Expansion: Comparing Established Firms and Entrepreneurial Start-ups ; SECTION III: RESTORING THE BOTTOM-UP PROCESS ; 9. Restoring the Bottom-up Process of Resource Allocation ; 10. Strategy Making as an Iterated Process of Resource Allocation ; 11. Resource vs. Routine Rigidity: Toward an Interpretive Model of Response to Discontinuous Change ; SECTION IV: THE NEED FOR TOP-DOWN INTERVENTION ; 12. Corporate Intervention in Resource Allocation ; 13. The Entrepreneurial M-Form: A Case Study of Strategic Integration in a Global Media Company ; 14. Strategic Flexibility: The Value of Corporate-level Real Options as a Response to Uncertainty in the Pursuit of Strategic Integration ; 15. Resource Allocation Process in Multidimensional Organizations: MNCs and Alliances ; SECTION V: OUTSIDE COMMENTARIES ON THE RAP PERSPECTIVE ; 16. Resource Allocation, Strategy, and Organization: An Economist's Thoughts ; 17. Comments on the Resource Allocation Process ; 18. Research Complementarities: A Resource-Based View of the Resource Allocation Process Model (and Visa Versa) ; 19. CEO as Change Agent? ; SECTION VI: CONCLUSION ; 20. A Revised Model of the Resource Allocation Process