Lilla Hortoványi

Strategy Without Templates

Adaptation in Digital Environments

12.4 Repositioning the Role of Strategy Theory

If strategy cannot be enacted through predefined plans and evaluated against stable benchmarks, then the role of strategy theory must be reconsidered. This is not a marginal adjustment to how theory is communicated or applied. It is a more fundamental question about the function of theory, and the answer implied by this book challenges how strategy scholarship has traditionally conceptualized the role of theory.

Under template-free conditions, theory cannot function primarily as a repository of best practices or prescriptive guidance. Instead, its role shifts toward providing conceptual tools that support sensemaking under conditions of uncertainty, opacity, and underspecified evaluation criteria. Theory becomes diagnostic and interpretive rather than prescriptive. Its value lies not in telling firms what to do, but in helping them understand what they are experiencing: why familiar approaches no longer produce reliable outcomes, what kinds of structural conditions they are operating under, and what forms of action become viable – and which become self-defeating – in such contexts. It provides analytical frameworks for interpreting ambiguous situations, vocabularies for articulating emergent patterns, and conceptual distinctions that make it possible to recognize when established strategic logics no longer apply.

At the same time, theory becomes explicitly conditional. Rather than advancing universal principles, it specifies the conditions under which different strategic logics hold. In template-rich environments, where stable structures and interpretable signals persist, traditional strategic frameworks may remain applicable. In template-free environments, however, different logics are required. Therefore, theory must help practitioners distinguish between these contexts and recognize when a shift in strategic logic is necessary.

This conditionality is not a weakness of the framework. It is one of its theoretical contributions. Strategy scholarship has long been criticized for producing prescriptions that travel poorly across contexts. The mechanism-based architecture developed in this book responds to that criticism not by claiming universal applicability but by making its scope conditions explicit. The framework applies most directly to firms operating in digitally mediated, platform-adjacent environments where algorithmic governance, ecosystem interdependence, and infrastructural opacity are consequential features of the competitive context. In environments where these conditions are absent or weak, traditional strategic frameworks retain greater traction, and the logics described here become less necessary. Specifying where a framework applies – and where it does not – is not a limitation to be apologized for; it is a condition of theoretical precision.

This repositioning also has implications for how theory is developed. The emphasis shifts from deriving normative recommendations toward constructing analytical frameworks that clarify underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions. The value of theory lies not in prescribing action but in enabling actors to recognize the limits of existing approaches and navigate evolving conditions with greater conceptual clarity.

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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