Lilla Hortoványi

Strategy Without Templates

Adaptation in Digital Environments

10.8 SME Adaptation Pathways

The framework developed in this chapter has particular importance for small and medium-sized enterprises. SMEs are not treated here merely as a smaller organizational category. They represent a particularly revealing domain in which adaptation under template-free conditions becomes especially visible.

Resource scarcity, limited slack, patchwork digitalization, and strong platform dependence make the mechanisms developed in this chapter easier to observe. Therefore, SMEs do not simply apply the framework. They illuminate its underlying logic.

SMEs have several structural advantages in such contexts. First, they are often more flexible. Decision chains are shorter, bureaucratic layers are thinner, and the distance between strategic decisions and operational realities is smaller. Second, they often have fewer legacy systems and sunk commitments, which reduces path dependence. Third, they tend to have tighter feedback loops, allowing faster learning.

At the same time, SMEs face distinct risks. These include stronger platform dependence, limited experimentation capacity, and weaker absorptive capabilities.

SME adaptation often follows an incremental path. Rather than redesigning the organization in one coordinated move, smaller firms rely on gradual, patchwork transformation. Karanasios et al. (2025) describe this as digital bricolage. Firms combine available resources into workable solutions to immediate problems. This aligns closely with the patchwork logic developed earlier and makes SMEs analytically valuable for understanding template-free adaptation.

In SMEs, orchestration, therefore, operates within structurally constrained and partially integrated systems, where leadership must coordinate heterogeneous arrangements rather than impose unified designs. Table 5 synthesizes the core dimensions of template-free strategic orientation by linking each dimension to its theoretical basis and operative capability requirements and identifies SMEs as an analytically revealing domain.

Table 5 Strategic orientation dimensions for template-free environments

Strategic Orientation Dimension	Chapter Reference	Key Capability Requirements
Reorienting from Alignment to Viability	Chapters 6–9	Viability assessment under constraint; trajectory-based evaluation; responsiveness to emerging signals
Orchestrating Experimentation	Chapter 6	Continuous, bounded, and cumulative experimentation; iterative learning; accumulation of insights
Balancing Stabilization and Destabilization	Chapter 7	Selective stabilization; management of path dependence; prevention of premature lock-in
Curating Patchwork Coherence	Chapter 8	Interface management; modular coordination; tolerance for functional inconsistency
Calibrating to Algorithmic Signals	Chapter 9	Signal interpretation under opacity; inferential reasoning; continuous adaptive adjustment
Enacting Constrained Agency	Chapters 7–9	Navigation within structural constraints; relational positioning; trajectory-based strategic judgment
Leading through Orchestration	Chapters 8–9	Coordination across distributed actors; management of tensions; adaptive alignment without full control
SME Adaptation as an Analytically Revealing Domain	Chapters 8–10	Resource recombination; incremental experimentation; adaptive use of patchwork digitalization

Source: Author’s own elaboration.

By mapping each strategic orientation dimension to its theoretical foundation in Chapters 6–9, Table 5 also identifies the core capabilities required for enactment. The table should be read as an integrated system: each dimension both enables and constrains the others. The capability requirements are not independent competencies but mutually reinforcing elements of a single adaptive orientation. The table serves as a reference point for interpreting how firms navigate template-free environments across different contexts.

Tartalomjegyzék

Kiadó: Akadémiai Kiadó

Online megjelenés éve: 2026

ISBN: 978 963 664 204 4

Gazdaság

What happens when understanding comes only after action has already begun?

Traditional strategy rests on the assumption that organizations can understand their environment before deciding how to act. Yet the conditions that once allowed organizations to rely on benchmarking, best practices, and proven strategic templates can no longer be taken for granted. Today, organizations increasingly face situations for which no clear roadmap exists. Established assumptions become less reliable, familiar reference points lose their clarity, and strategic decisions must be made before their consequences can be fully understood.

Strategy Without Templates explores how organizations learn, adapt, and navigate environments in which uncertainty is pervasive and established templates are absent or no longer sufficient. Instead of treating strategy as a process of prediction and planning, the book explores how strategic paths take shape through action, experimentation, adjustment, and learning.

A central insight in the book is that temporary solutions are often necessary. What begins as a practical response to an immediate challenge may gradually shape future possibilities in unexpected ways. Some solutions create new opportunities and sources of advantage. Others become constraints that are difficult to overcome.

Hivatkozás: https://mersz.hu/hortovanyi-strategy-without-templates//

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