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A multi-level dialectical-paradox lens for top management team strategic decision-making in a corporate venture

A multi-level dialectical-paradox lens for top management team strategic decision-making in a corporate venture
A multi-level dialectical-paradox lens for top management team strategic decision-making in a corporate venture
This paper aims to critique the process of corporate-owned, high-tech start-up strategizing through an inductive, longitudinal, case study of ‘UK-Research-Tech’. Insights are given through the combined ‘dialectical–paradox’ concept, thereby focusing on where ‘dialectic’ and ‘paradox’ theorizing overlap. This linked iterative, ‘dialogical–dialectic’ research approach also reflects chief executive officer/top management team (CEO/TMT) start-up dynamics over time. These foci fill important gaps that impede better understanding of dialectical, dialogical and paradoxical forces within strategic decision-making. As an interpretative tool, they illuminate CEO/TMT strategizing and changing interrelationships affected by broader, volatile, techno-economic contexts and parent-company influences on ventures. In this case study, it was found that the CEO's relatively autocratic, parent-framed approach combined with TMT members' contradictory reactions to create ‘dialectical–paradox’ oppositional forces, eventually only resolved through ‘eleventh hour’ business strategy changes to rescue the venture. This research contributes to more nuanced understandings of corporate-constrained ventures during early business development from start-up strategic decisions at parent-company level to subsequent conditions of more independent dynamic equilibrium. The ‘dialectical–paradox’ conceptual lens contributes an innovative critique of processes affecting strategic decision-making dynamics. Another important contribution is the empirically inspired conceptual model, developed for use both to guide subsequent case-study research analyses and as a reflective tool for CEO/TMT strategic decision-making, especially within corporate-inspired start-ups.
1045-3172
484-506
Costanzo, Laura
bce28c22-8b70-4176-b523-4e2f59169baf
Di Domenico, MariaLaura
0821025c-533d-4793-926f-667e07aa6915
Costanzo, Laura
bce28c22-8b70-4176-b523-4e2f59169baf
Di Domenico, MariaLaura
0821025c-533d-4793-926f-667e07aa6915

Costanzo, Laura and Di Domenico, MariaLaura (2015) A multi-level dialectical-paradox lens for top management team strategic decision-making in a corporate venture. British Journal of Management, 26 (3), 484-506. (doi:10.1111/1467-8551.12073).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This paper aims to critique the process of corporate-owned, high-tech start-up strategizing through an inductive, longitudinal, case study of ‘UK-Research-Tech’. Insights are given through the combined ‘dialectical–paradox’ concept, thereby focusing on where ‘dialectic’ and ‘paradox’ theorizing overlap. This linked iterative, ‘dialogical–dialectic’ research approach also reflects chief executive officer/top management team (CEO/TMT) start-up dynamics over time. These foci fill important gaps that impede better understanding of dialectical, dialogical and paradoxical forces within strategic decision-making. As an interpretative tool, they illuminate CEO/TMT strategizing and changing interrelationships affected by broader, volatile, techno-economic contexts and parent-company influences on ventures. In this case study, it was found that the CEO's relatively autocratic, parent-framed approach combined with TMT members' contradictory reactions to create ‘dialectical–paradox’ oppositional forces, eventually only resolved through ‘eleventh hour’ business strategy changes to rescue the venture. This research contributes to more nuanced understandings of corporate-constrained ventures during early business development from start-up strategic decisions at parent-company level to subsequent conditions of more independent dynamic equilibrium. The ‘dialectical–paradox’ conceptual lens contributes an innovative critique of processes affecting strategic decision-making dynamics. Another important contribution is the empirically inspired conceptual model, developed for use both to guide subsequent case-study research analyses and as a reflective tool for CEO/TMT strategic decision-making, especially within corporate-inspired start-ups.

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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 30 October 2014
Published date: July 2015
Organisations: Southampton Business School

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 378101
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/378101
ISSN: 1045-3172
PURE UUID: 255d590d-f2a7-4a6b-905f-e711a99ca31f
ORCID for Laura Costanzo: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7197-6778

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Date deposited: 16 Jun 2015 14:11
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:48

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Contributors

Author: Laura Costanzo ORCID iD
Author: MariaLaura Di Domenico

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