Lilla Hortoványi

Strategy Without Templates

Adaptation in Digital Environments

11.5.2 Measurement and Operationalization

Advancing the template-free framework requires developing rigorous measures for its core constructs. How can researchers operationalize and measure template-freeness? What indicators distinguish environments with abundant structural referents from those where referents are scarce or absent? Potential dimensions include the stability of competitive positions over time, the degree to which successful practices can be identified and transferred, the availability of benchmarks and best practices, and the extent to which firms can anticipate future conditions based on past patterns.

Partial integration poses similar measurement challenges. How can researchers assess the degree of integration or fragmentation in organizational architectures? What metrics capture the heterogeneity of organizational elements, the strength of coupling among them, and the extent to which they operate according to different logics? Potential approaches include network analysis of organizational interdependencies, assessment of the diversity of technologies and practices in use, and evaluation of the consistency of decision-making logics across organizational units.

Feedback opacity requires measures that capture the degree to which firms can interpret the signals they receive. This might include the transparency of algorithmic systems mediating feedback, the stability of the relationship between firm actions and observed outcomes, and the extent to which firms can attribute outcomes to specific causes. Developing such measures would enable large sample quantitative research testing the framework’s predictions and examining boundary conditions.

Survey-based research could assess how managers perceive and respond to template-free conditions. Do managers in more template-free environments exhibit different strategic orientations than those in environments with abundant referents? How do perceptions of feedback opacity relate to strategic practices and organizational outcomes? Such research would complement qualitative studies by providing broader empirical grounding for the framework’s claims.

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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