Research notes and communications: An exploratory approach to measuring perceptions of strategic decision process constructs

• Published date: 01 September 1986
• Author: James W. Fredrickson
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250070507
• Date: 01 September 1986

Strategic Management Journal, Vol.

7,

473-483 (1986)

Research Notes

and

Communications

An Exploratory Approach to Measuring

Perceptions

of

Strategic Decision Process

Constructs

JAMES

W.

FREDRICKSON

Graduate

School

of

Business, Columbia University, New York,

New York,

U.S.A.

c

Summary

Two recent studies (Fredrickson. 1984; Fredrickson and Mitchell,

1984) used a new research method

to

obtain statistically veriJiable

measures

of

a strategic decision process construct.

In

this paper the

method’s underlying theory and assumptions are made explicit, its

benefits and shortcomings are discussed, and possible extensions are

suggested.

INTRODUCTION

The lack of empirical testing in strategy formulation research has been attributed to the

intangible nature of strategic process constructs (Mintzberg,

1977),

the practical difficulties

of doing strategic-level research (Rumelt,

1979),

and poorly trained investigators (Hatten,

1979).

However, it is suggested that progress has been delayed for two more basic reasons:

(1)

investigators often conceptualize strategy formulation in a way that is not operational

for research purposes, and

(2)

they do not emphasize construct and method development.

As

a

result of these problems, important phenomena are often overlooked and the most

commonly used methods have theoretical and empirical shortcomings.

For example, the most widely used research approach assigns firms to broad categories

based

on

the formality of their ‘planning’ (see Kudla,

1980,

for a review), but it reveals very

little about what actually occurs during the decision process. Like other strategic process

research that relies entirely

on

questionnaire responses (Bourgeois,

1980;

Hambrick,

198 l),

it may also be affected by the problems inherent

in

questionnaires. They are subject to

respondents’ varying interpretations and cognitive orientations, do not establish the context

that is critical in determining whether a situation is strategic (Mintzberg,

1979),

and are

often too general to stimulate respondents’ interest. Similarly, observational methods that

have been

so

valuable in theory development (Quinn,

1980)

usually do not allow tests

of

generalizability

.

In

an attempt to overcome the above problems, the two studies referred to in the

Summary relied on

a

new, two-phase research method. The method used structured

interviews and

a

written ‘decision scenario’ to measure the ‘comprehensiveness’ of strategic

decision processes. The scenario depicted

a

firm faced with

a

major problem and described

the actions the firm

took

to make

a

decision and integrate it into an overall strategy.

0143-2095/86/050473-11$05.00

0

1986

by

John

Wiley

&

Sons,

Ltd.

Received

I3

January 1984

Revised

24

April 1985