Strategy Analysis: The Cultural and Configuration Schools of Strategy Formation

Ever since the term “strategy” was associated with the plans and actions that businesses engage in to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals and be successful and profitable, many different ways of forming strategy have been theorized. Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, and Lampel (2005) organized these different approaches into ten schools: the Design; Planning; Positioning (prescriptive); Entrepreneurial; Cognitive; Learning; Power; Cultural; Environmental (descriptive), and Configuration (descriptive and prescriptive). This book (1) compares the Cultural and Configuration schools of strategy, (2) evaluates them in relation to the tools and theories upon which they are built, (3) synthesizes and analyzes how associated risks, uncertainty, and resource allocation is defined by strategy; furthermore, it (4) compares and analyzes the market structures in which organizations that subscribe to these schools operate, and (5) discusses how strategy in these two schools of thought is affected by stable or turbulent market environments.