Strategic Change Process Based On Practice Variation Study

A center of interests in strategic theory is Strategic Change. However, the black box of strategic change process is still not open. The dominant paradigm in this field is to find out the cause-and-effect relationship between variables, under which researchers can not find out the essence of the phenomena. Moreover, based on the functional explanation of routine, it is regard as the obstacle of strategic change. Such explanation ignores the initiative power of principals. In this thesis, I suppose that organization is an aggregation of routines and try to explore the process of strategic change based on the change of routines.Accordingly, the elementary purpose of this thesis is to find out the relationship between the change of routine and the process of strategic change. It focuses on the following four core questions. The first one is what is the essence of routine, which function routine takes in the organization and what is the relationship between routine and strategy. The second question is whether routine can change, what is the change process, how is that generated and what is the potential outcomes. The third question is whether the change of one routine can diffuse within the organization, by which way is it transmitted, what is the generative mechanism and what are contingencies. The fourth question is how many modes there are of change of aggregated routines, how is that influence the portfolio of strategic factors, and what is the track of strategic change.There are seven chapters in this thesis. The first chapter is introduction.Thecontents of the other six chapters are as followings:Chapter 2 Routine and Its CharacteristicsThe purpose of this chapter is to give the accurate definition of routing and set up the research bases. After reviewing of the theory of routines, I point out the errors in the existing routine definitions and correct them. Then I draw out three core dimensionalities and explain its core characteristics, duality. Finally. I illuminate the structural traits of aggregation of routines.Chapter 3 Strategy, Strategic Change and Routine...