How Much Does Strategy Matter, Really?

Abstract

Strategy researchers maintain (often implicitly) that strategy is important (Bowman & Helfat, 2001; McGahan & Porter, 1997; Rumelt 1991). However, they have not yet articulated the degree of importance relative to other presumably important things.1 The purpose of this study was to close this gap in the strategy literature once and for all by asking and answering the following research question: how important is strategy, really?