The aim of this research was to explore empirically how firms create and implement strategic decisions (SD’s). The research was inspired by the need to understand further organizational process underpinning SD’s phenomenon and potentially contribute to the overall performance of firms. Previous research on SD’s has been focusing on the formal strategic planning approaches, which have been criticized for their highly prescriptive views of SD’s, separating creation from implementation, and focusing on the content and discrete elements rather than the holistic process. Despite all these studies, our understanding of the actual nature of the SD phenomenon from creation to implementation remains incomplete. Motivated by the need to look empirically and holistically at this very complex social phenomenon, this research problematizes the above aspects of SD’s literature and positions this research within a wider social and descriptive process based approach. The research employed qualitative and Analytic Induction (AI) methodologies, and addressed the above need in three projects. The objective of each project has evolved and lead to the emergence of the final findings, which suggest a possible answer to the overall research aim. The Scoping Study proposed a theoretical framework of successful SD’s implementation factors. Project 1 went further and investigated these factors empirically. Project 2 developed empirically the process of how people actually create and implement SD’s. In Project 3, this process was analysed through the theoretical lens of the sensemaking perspective and was applied by practitioners through an empirically tested diagnostic tool. This research has made a step towards a better understanding of SD’s in practice and contributed to the academic knowledge by proposing a different, yet viable descriptive process, which can improve the overall quality of the SD’s, and potentially lead to better performance.

The aim of this research was to explore empirically how firms create and implement strategic decisions (SD’s). The research was inspired by the need to understand further organizational process underpinning SD’s phenomenon and potentially contribute to the overall performance of firms. Previous research on SD’s has been focusing on the formal strategic planning approaches, which have been criticized for their highly prescriptive views of SD’s, separating creation from implementation, and focusing on the content and discrete elements rather than the holistic process. Despite all these studies, our understanding of the actual nature of the SD phenomenon from creation to implementation remains incomplete. Motivated by the need to look empirically and holistically at this very complex social phenomenon, this research problematizes the above aspects of SD’s literature and positions this research within a wider social and descriptive process based approach. The research employed qualitative and Analytic Induction (AI) methodologies, and addressed the above need in three projects. The objective of each project has evolved and lead to the emergence of the final findings, which suggest a possible answer to the overall research aim. The Scoping Study proposed a theoretical framework of successful SD’s implementation factors. Project 1 went further and investigated these factors empirically. Project 2 developed empirically the process of how people actually create and implement SD’s. In Project 3, this process was analysed through the theoretical lens of the sensemaking perspective and was applied by practitioners through an empirically tested diagnostic tool. This research has made a step towards a better understanding of SD’s in practice and contributed to the academic knowledge by proposing a different, yet viable descriptive process, which can improve the overall quality of the SD’s, and potentially lead to better performance.