Establishing strategic management as an academic discipline

This chapter introduces the reader to the influence of Porter's thinking in the field of strategic management. The frameworks presented in Porter's seminal work, Competitive Strategy, addressed many of the central questions in what has since become the field of strategic management, such as ‘What is the appropriate dependent variable in strategic management research and practice?’ ‘What is the proper theoretical framework for analyzing strategic management problems?’ ‘What is the appropriate unit of analysis in this field?’, and ‘What is the appropriate role of broader social issues in this field?’. It is suggested that after Competitive Strategy, strategic management became an academic discipline built around several well-articulated theories, all designed to address a single set of highly related questions.