History‐informed strategy research: The promise of history and historical research methods in advancing strategy scholarship

• Date: 01 March 2020
• Author: Federico Frattini,Nicholas S. Argyres,Nicolai J. Foss,Geoffrey Jones,Brian S. Silverman,Alfredo De Massis
• Published date: 01 March 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3118

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

History-informed strategy research: The

promise of history and historical research

methods in advancing strategy scholarship

Nicholas S. Argyres

1

| Alfredo De Massis

2,3,4

| Nicolai J. Foss

5,6

|

Federico Frattini

7

| Geoffrey Jones

8

| Brian S. Silverman

9

1

Olin School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri

2

Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Faculty of Economics & Management, Centre for Family Business Management,

Bolzano, Italy

3

Lancaster University Management School, Department of Entrepreneurship & Strategy, Lancaster, United Kingdom

4

Zhejiang University, Institute of Family Business, Hangzhou, China

5

Departmentof Strategy and Innovation (CBS), Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark

6

Departmentof Strategy and Leadership (NHH), Norwegian School of Economics, Bergen, Norway

7

Department of Management, Economics, and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

8

General Management, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

9

Strategic Management, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Correspondence

Nicolai J. Foss, Copenhagen Business

School, Frederiksberg, Denmark.

Email: njf.si@cbs.dk

Abstract

Research Summary: The last decade has witnessed

an increasing interest in the use of history and histori-

cal research methods in strategy research. We discuss

how and why history and historical research methods

can enrich theoretical explanations of strategy phenom-

ena. In addition, we introduce the notions of “history-

informed strategy research,”distinguishing between

the dimensions of “history to theory”and “history in

theory”and discussing various under-utilized methods

that may further work on history-informed strategy

research. We then discuss how contemporary research

contributes to history-informed research within the

strategy field, examine key methodological and empiri-

cal challenges associated with such research, and

develop an agenda for future research.

Received: 4 December 2019 Accepted: 4 December 2019 Published on: 17 December 2019

DOI: 10.1002/smj.3118

Strat Mgmt J. 2020;41:343–368. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/smj © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 343

Managerial Summary: Firms are increasingly mak-

ing use of their historical past as they reflect on their

identities and how these can be used strategically. At

the same time, strategy researchers are paying increas-

ing to the use of historical research methods, as well as

to how firms use history strategically. We take stock on

the role of history in strategy research, outline the key

strategic issues that can be informed by a historical way

of doing research, discuss the available historical

methods, and offer suggestions for future research in

the history/strategy intersection.

KEYWORDS

firm identity, historical research methods, history-informed strategy

research, small-N research, the role of the past

1|INTRODUCTION

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in exploring the nexus between history and

strategy (e.g., Braguinsky & Hounsell, 2015; Leblebici, 2012; Murmann, 2012; Vaara &

Lamberg, 2016). As an illustration of an emerging “historical turn”in strategy research, the

number of articles in the Strategic Management Journal that cite the word “history”or “histori-

cal”in the title, in the abstract, or in the keyword list grew from 10 in the period 2010–2014 to

26 in the period 2015–2019.

1

There are at least three related reasons for this increase.

First, strategy scholars have long had a desire to pinpoint the ultimate sources of firms’

sustained competitive advantages (e.g., Barney, 1991; Lieberman & Montgomery, 1988;

Lippman & Rumelt, 1982; Oliver, 1997), and have examined firms’historical experiences in this

effort (Buenstorf & Klepper 2009; Helfat & Lieberman 2002; Moeen 2017). Historical research—

that is, “empirical research that uses remote sensing and a contextualist approach to explana-

tion”(Ingram, Rao, & Silverman, 2012, p. 249)–is particularly well suited for this task. If firms

with sustained competitive advantages are outliers, then the study of such outliers requires

going beyond approaches that emphasize averages and discourage examination of extreme data

points. A small sample, the historical approach may be superior, at least for some purposes

(e.g., how the competitive advantage emerged and developed over time). More broadly, histori-

cal analysis can be highly useful to strategy research for investigating how the context of con-

temporary phenomena developed, identifying sources of exogenous variations, developing and

testing more informed causal inferences and theories, and more easily supporting analyses of

path dependence (Fischer, 1970; Kieser, 1994; Kluppel, Pierce, & Snyder, 2018).

Second, strategy scholars have been increasingly interested in understanding how firms

make use of history in their strategy processes, and how interpretations of the past influence

strategy-making (see, e.g., Kaplan & Orlikowski, 2013; Schultz & Hernes, 2013). Accordingly,

history has been increasingly conceptualized as an endogenous resource that can be proactively

1

As of 24th July, 2019. These numbers include early view papers.

344 ARGYRES ET AL.