"Can you define 'plan' as 'a loose sequence of manifestly inadequate observations and conjectures, held together by panic, indecision, and ignorance'? If so, it was a very good plan." Jonathan Stroud, The Ring of Solomon Jonathan Stroud knew that a plan cannot stand alone and needs more. Every business needs a strategy. Academics in the field of strategic management have bewailed the field's disparate, ambiguous nature. The question arises: how can these concerns be compliant with the substantial success that strategic management experienced in the past? The weaknesses of strategic management seem to be its strengths. In their study, Nag, Hambrick and Chen (2007) suggest that strategic management acts as an intellectual dealer entity, which thrives by enabling the simultaneous pursuit of multiple research orientations by a variety of disciplinary and philosophical regimes. The Bain and Company Management Tools and Trends, (Rigby & Bilodeau 2011) indicated the importance of management tools and how these tools can enhance an organisation's ability to strategise for the future. Mankins and Steele (2005) identified factors resulting in a strategy-to-performance gap and made recommendations on how an organisation can minimise such gaps. Tait and Nienaber (2010) came to the conclusion that the use of management tools could reduce challenges of formulation, implementation and evaluation resulting in closing or minimising the strategy-to-performance gap. In view of the findings of these three above-mentioned studies, this study of SAEO aimed to explore (identify, describe and understand) what factors top, middle and frontline managers perceived to hinder strategy implementation at SAEO during the 2009/10-2010/11 financial years, resulting in a strategy-to-performance gap and to determine how these factors affect the organisation. This study was conducted as a qualitative case study that used empirical evidence from real people in a real-life organisation. Data was collected from a South African electronics organisation (henceforth referred to as SAEO) involving 14 managers at three different hierarchical levels (top, middle and frontline managers). They were required to answer semi-structured questions on to how these strategy-formulation-implementation-evaluation phases affect their working environment. The interviews were conducted at the premises of the organisation and permission was sought from the CEO who granted permission for the researcher to request the managers to participate. Information was used from previous authors and a replication study was conducted using the Mankins and Steele (2005) and Tait and Nienaber (2010) studies. The purpose of this study was to identify, describe and understand "what factors, if any, hinder strategy implementation" (Ehlers & Lazenby, 2004; Mankins & Steele, 2005; Tait & Nienaber, 2010). Ehlers and Lazenby (2004:117) and Mankins and Steele (2005:66) have indicated that strategy implementation is the most difficult part of the strategic management process. In the Mankins and Steele (2005) and Tait and Nienaber (2010) studies, although the order differed, the most prevalent performance factors contributing to the strategy-to-performance gap were identified as a lack of focus/conflicting priorities and no resources, inadequate skills and capabilities, unclear accountabilities for execution, insufficient rewards and consequences and poorly communicated strategies. The results of this SAEO study confirmed that ineffective communication, followed by inadequate monitoring; insufficient leadership and no approved strategy were the main reasons for the strategy-to-performance gap. It seemed as if SAEO had a bigger challenge in communicating its strategy to employees than was the case in the Mankins and Steele (2005) and the Tait and Nienaber (2010) studies. Although the biggest challenge at the four South African Life Insurers (Tait & Nienaber, 2010) was inadequate or unavailable resources, the challenge at SAEO was ineffective communication and it was evident that it should be addressed to close the strategy-to-performance gap. Both challenges are part of the strategy implementation phase although communication could be related to formulation, implementation and evaluation of strategy. Although the results (ranking of factors indicated to contribute to the strategy-to-performance phenomenon) of this study did not entirely concur with the studies of Mankins and Steele (2005) and Tait and Nienaber (2010), the important fact remains that without a formulated strategy on how to ensure survival and growth of an organisation, challenges such as ineffective communication and/or inadequate or unavailable resources which were found in the three studies (Mankins & Steele, 2005; Tait & Nienaber, 2010; and the SAEO study) will have a negative effect on an organisation's future growth and prosperity. It became evident from this (SAEO) study that every member of an organisation will be affected should a strategy-to-performance gap exist. Therefore it is crucial that each organisation timeously identify possible factors that can result in a strategy-to-performance gap and determine what can be done to close or narrow those performance gaps. Lear (2012) contends that even if an organisation has the most outstanding strategy, the strategy will mean nothing if it is not understood at all levels within the organisation. That includes all processes to be aligned to achieve the organisation's objectives. / Business Management / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

La Responsabilité Sociale des Entreprises peut aujourd’hui être considérée comme un thème de gestion qui prend tout son sens dans le management opérationnel des entreprises et des organisations. C’est pourquoi, il semble nécessaire d’éclairer le concept de Responsabilité Sociale des Entreprises, notamment parce qu’il ne concerne pas uniquement le volet social des organisations et qu’il ne s’applique pas qu’aux entreprises stricto sensu. Il s’agit de commencer par traduire ce concept dans les décisions et les pratiques de management stratégique, mais également de proposer une ingénierie stratégique pour sa mise en œuvre. Enfin, il faut évaluer les effets sur la performance globale de l’entreprise ou de l’organisation, c'est-à-dire sur les trois performances : environnementale, sociale et économique, de manière à en mesurer l’efficacité et l’efficience dans le temps. Nous proposons une modélisation pour faciliter la mise en place de la Responsabilité Sociale dans les Entreprises à travers une ingénierie tridimensionnelle qui comprend les trois axes du processus d’implantation, les trois volets de la RSE et les trois étapes de mise en œuvre. Nos recherches ont débuté par une approche auprès de neuf terrains dits préliminaires qui nous ont permis d’obtenir les éléments nécessaires à la construction de notre modèle de management stratégique de la Responsabilité Sociale des Entreprises. Nous avons ensuite testé notre modèle auprès de deux organisations en menant une étude longitudinale de près de trois ans. / Today the Corporate Social Responsibility can be considered as particularly relevant as far as the operational management of companies and organisations are concerned. It is indeed necessary to clarify the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility because this notion does not only concern the social aspects of organisations, and it does not apply only to companies. First of all, this concept should be applied in the decisions and practice of Strategic Management and be set up thanks to strategic engineering. Eventually, the impacts on the general performance of companies or on organisations will be assessed at three different levels: environmental, social and economical in order to measure the efficiency and the efficacy along the periods of time. We suggest a model to facilitate the implementation of Social Responsibility in the companies through a three dimensional engineering. It consists of the three main lines of the Corporate Social Responsibility and its implementation process which includes three different stages. We drew on our research on nine different preliminary fields from which we have obtained the necessary elements to develop our model of Corporate Social Responsibility strategic management. Then we have tested this model on two organisations and we carried out a three year longitudinal analysis.

"Can you define 'plan' as 'a loose sequence of manifestly inadequate observations and conjectures, held together by panic, indecision, and ignorance'? If so, it was a very good plan." Jonathan Stroud, The Ring of Solomon Jonathan Stroud knew that a plan cannot stand alone and needs more. Every business needs a strategy. Academics in the field of strategic management have bewailed the field's disparate, ambiguous nature. The question arises: how can these concerns be compliant with the substantial success that strategic management experienced in the past? The weaknesses of strategic management seem to be its strengths. In their study, Nag, Hambrick and Chen (2007) suggest that strategic management acts as an intellectual dealer entity, which thrives by enabling the simultaneous pursuit of multiple research orientations by a variety of disciplinary and philosophical regimes. The Bain and Company Management Tools and Trends, (Rigby & Bilodeau 2011) indicated the importance of management tools and how these tools can enhance an organisation's ability to strategise for the future. Mankins and Steele (2005) identified factors resulting in a strategy-to-performance gap and made recommendations on how an organisation can minimise such gaps. Tait and Nienaber (2010) came to the conclusion that the use of management tools could reduce challenges of formulation, implementation and evaluation resulting in closing or minimising the strategy-to-performance gap. In view of the findings of these three above-mentioned studies, this study of SAEO aimed to explore (identify, describe and understand) what factors top, middle and frontline managers perceived to hinder strategy implementation at SAEO during the 2009/10-2010/11 financial years, resulting in a strategy-to-performance gap and to determine how these factors affect the organisation. This study was conducted as a qualitative case study that used empirical evidence from real people in a real-life organisation. Data was collected from a South African electronics organisation (henceforth referred to as SAEO) involving 14 managers at three different hierarchical levels (top, middle and frontline managers). They were required to answer semi-structured questions on to how these strategy-formulation-implementation-evaluation phases affect their working environment. The interviews were conducted at the premises of the organisation and permission was sought from the CEO who granted permission for the researcher to request the managers to participate. Information was used from previous authors and a replication study was conducted using the Mankins and Steele (2005) and Tait and Nienaber (2010) studies. The purpose of this study was to identify, describe and understand "what factors, if any, hinder strategy implementation" (Ehlers & Lazenby, 2004; Mankins & Steele, 2005; Tait & Nienaber, 2010). Ehlers and Lazenby (2004:117) and Mankins and Steele (2005:66) have indicated that strategy implementation is the most difficult part of the strategic management process. In the Mankins and Steele (2005) and Tait and Nienaber (2010) studies, although the order differed, the most prevalent performance factors contributing to the strategy-to-performance gap were identified as a lack of focus/conflicting priorities and no resources, inadequate skills and capabilities, unclear accountabilities for execution, insufficient rewards and consequences and poorly communicated strategies. The results of this SAEO study confirmed that ineffective communication, followed by inadequate monitoring; insufficient leadership and no approved strategy were the main reasons for the strategy-to-performance gap. It seemed as if SAEO had a bigger challenge in communicating its strategy to employees than was the case in the Mankins and Steele (2005) and the Tait and Nienaber (2010) studies. Although the biggest challenge at the four South African Life Insurers (Tait & Nienaber, 2010) was inadequate or unavailable resources, the challenge at SAEO was ineffective communication and it was evident that it should be addressed to close the strategy-to-performance gap. Both challenges are part of the strategy implementation phase although communication could be related to formulation, implementation and evaluation of strategy. Although the results (ranking of factors indicated to contribute to the strategy-to-performance phenomenon) of this study did not entirely concur with the studies of Mankins and Steele (2005) and Tait and Nienaber (2010), the important fact remains that without a formulated strategy on how to ensure survival and growth of an organisation, challenges such as ineffective communication and/or inadequate or unavailable resources which were found in the three studies (Mankins & Steele, 2005; Tait & Nienaber, 2010; and the SAEO study) will have a negative effect on an organisation's future growth and prosperity. It became evident from this (SAEO) study that every member of an organisation will be affected should a strategy-to-performance gap exist. Therefore it is crucial that each organisation timeously identify possible factors that can result in a strategy-to-performance gap and determine what can be done to close or narrow those performance gaps. Lear (2012) contends that even if an organisation has the most outstanding strategy, the strategy will mean nothing if it is not understood at all levels within the organisation. That includes all processes to be aligned to achieve the organisation's objectives. / Business Management / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

This cumulative dissertation covers the concepts of scenario-based strategic planning and strategic management in family firms over five articles. The first article gives an overview of the cumulative dissertation explaining the research gap, approach and contribution of the dissertation. The paper highlights the two research areas covered by the dissertation with two articles focusing on scenario-based strategic planning and two on strategic management in family firms. The second article is the first of two focusing on scenario-based strategic planning. It introduces and describes a set of six tools facilitating the implementation of scenario-based strategic planning in corporate practice. The third paper adapts these tools to the financial management and controlling context in private companies highlighting the tools’ flexibility in managing uncertain and volatile environments. The fourth article is the first of two focusing on strategic management in family firms. It analyzes organizational ambidexterity as a factor explaining family firm performance. The article shows that a high level of organizational ambidexterity in family firms leads to a higher family firm performance. The final paper concludes the dissertation examining the tendency of family firms to focus on capability exploration or resource exploitation over different generations managing the family firm.:I. SCENARIO-BASED STRATEGIC PLANNING AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IN FAMILY FIRMS … 1 1. Research question and goal of the dissertation … 2 2. Summary of papers … 8 2.1. Contribution … 12 2.2. Implications and further research … 16 II. SIX TOOLS FOR SCENARIO-BASED STRATEGIC PLANNING AND THEIR APPLICATION … 25 1. Introducing tools one and two: The framing checklist and 360° stakeholder feedback … 27 1.1. The framing checklist … 27 1.2. Description of the framing checklist … 29 1.3. 360° stakeholder feedback … 36 1.3.1. Existing perceptions, blind spots and weak signals … 37 1.3.2. Description of 360° stakeholder feedback … 38 1.4. Evaluation of the framing checklist and 360° stakeholder feedback … 44 2. Applying frameworks one and two: The framing checklist and 360° stakeholder feedback in the European airline industry … 46 2.1. Introduction … 46 2.2. The framing checklist … 46 2.3. 360° stakeholder feedback … 48 3. Introducing tools three and four: The impact/uncertainty grid and the scenario matrix … 53 3.1. The impact/uncertainty grid … 53 3.2. Description of the impact/uncertainty grid … 55 3.3. The scenario matrix … 57 3.4. Description of the scenario matrix … 62 3.5. Evaluating the impact/uncertainty grid and the scenario matrix … 67 4. Applying frameworks three and four: The impact/uncertainty grid and the scenario matrix in the European airline industry … 69 4.1. Introduction … 69 4.2. The impact/uncertainty grid … 69 4.3. The scenario matrix … 71 5. Introducing tools five and six: The strategy manual and the monitoring cockpit … 87 5.1. Introduction … 87 5.2. The strategy manual … 87 5.3. Description of the strategy manual … 91 5.4. The scenario cockpit … 95 5.5. Description of the scenario cockpit … 96 5.6. Evaluating the strategy manual and the scenario cockpit ..................... 99 6. Applying frameworks five and six: The strategy manual and the scenario cockpit in the European airline industry … 102 6.1. The strategy manual … 102 6.2. The scenario cockpit … 105 III. SZENARIOBASIERTE STRATEGISCHE PLANUNG IN VOLATILEN UMFELDERN … 111 1. Einführung: Unternehmen agieren in einer zunehmend volatilen Umwelt … 112 2. Volatilität als Herausforderung für die strategische Planung … 112 3. Szenariobasierte strategische Planung als Lösungsansatz für Planung unter Volatilität …114 3.1. Grundlagen der szenariobasierten strategischen Planung … 114 3.2. Prozess der szenariobasierten strategischen Planung … 115 4. Zusammenfassung ... 122 IV. ORGANIZATIONAL AMBIDEXTERITY AND FAMILY FIRM PERFORMANCE … 125 1. Introduction … 126 2. Theory and Hypotheses … 127 3. Methodology … 131 3.1. Research Design and Sample Generation … 131 3.2. Measures … 133 4. Analysis and Results … 135 5. Discussion and Conclusion … 139 V. THE IMPACT OF SUCCESOR GENERATION DISCOUNT IN FAMILY FIRMS: EXAMINING NONLINEAR EFFECTS ON EXPLORATION AND EXPLOITATION … 150 1. Introduction … 151 2. The RBV and the importance of exploration and exploitation … 154 3. The importance of exploration and exploitation in family firms … 156 4. The impact of generational involvement on exploration and exploitation in family firms … 159 5. Methodology … 164 5.1. Constructs … 165 5.2. Results … 167 6. Discussion … 172 6.1. Implications for theory and practice … 175 6.2. Study limitations and future research … 176 6.3. Conclusion … 177

Cílem disertace je ověřit existenci vztahu mezi využitím analytických nástrojů strategického řízení a výkonností podniků. Za tímto účelem bylo třeba nejdříve definovat množinu analytických nástrojů strategického řízení, které jsou v soudobé praxi našich firem nejčastěji používané a nalézt způsob, kterým lze hodnotit výkonnost podniků. K tomuto účelu byly připraveny dva výzkumy: výsledkem prvního bylo zjištění nejčastěji používaných analytických nástrojů strategického řízení a faktorů, které jejich využití ovlivňují, t.j. jejich znalost, spokojenost s nimi a velikost podniků. Výsledkem druhého výzkumu bylo navržení nového způsobu multikriteriálního hodnocení podnikového výkonu. Pomocí analýzy hlavních komponent (principal component analysis) byly definovány čtyři skupiny ukazatelů, které umožňují komplexní posouzení podnikového výkonu: ukazatele finanční výkonnosti, konkurenční pozice, orientace na zákazníky a organizační integrity. S použitím regresní analýzy (stepwise regression analysis) byl prokázán pozitivní vliv využití analytických nástrojů strategického řízení na výkonnost podniků.