engleski

The Impact of Strategic Management and Strategic Thinking on the Performance of Croatian Entrepreneurial Practice

This doctoral dissertation deals with two quite self-understanding concepts of strategic management - strategic thinking and schools of strategic management and their impact on the financial results in large Croatian firms. Strategic management school is a concept that represents the dominant paradigm of the top managers’ point of view on the process of strategic management. I suggested a new classification of the schools of strategic management based on two criteria- the role of the top manager in the process and time horizon: Classical school, Environmental school, Competitive school and Contemporary school. First, each school is individually presented and supported by ideas and contributions of different leading researchers and the critical overview of these contributions. Strategic thinking is an under-researched concept that is at the very heart of strategic management. No matter how many methods, tools, and techniques top managers use, none of them could replace strategic thinking. Due to the difficulties in articulating the cognitive character of strategic thinking, it is very elusive to define, measure, train or learn how to think strategically. The empirical research recognized three distinctive ways of the strategic thinking capability: HEAR, FIRM and PORT. The most suitable way of developing strategic thinking capability among large Croatian firms are HEAR, according to ROA or FIRM, according to ROE. The most suitable approach to the process of strategic management according to ROA, is the Competitive-Contemporary school, and according to ROE the Environmental school. The construct HEAR has direct and positive impact on ROE ; PORT has direct and negative impact whereas FIRM has no direct impact on the value of ROE. The Classical school of strategic management has a negative impact on ROE while the Environmental and Competitive-Contemporary schools have no direct impact on ROE at all. The world of management, and strategic management in specific, is perceived as a world of paradoxes and contradictions but actually, I believe it is a very neat and orderly system of principles and rules yet unknown to our senses, perception, and knowledge.

strategic thinking; strategic management schools; large Croatian firms; top management

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