Strategic Management: Is It An Academic Discipline?

Abstract

This paper seeks to address the question of whether strategic managementis an academic discipline, as critics have argued it is not. We offer a synthesizeddefinition of strategic management and assess whether strategic management is anacademic discipline by utilizing the framework established by Biglan (1973). Thisframework requires disciplines to have a unifying paradigm(s) as well as practicalapplication of its theories. After analysis, we conclude that strategic managementmeets Biglan’s (1973) requirements and should be considered an academic discipline.In closing, we consider the future direction of strategic management researchand new research methods.