A Process Study of Strategic Change and Industry Evolution – the Case of the Irish Dairy Industry, 1958–74
通过纵向过程方法研究1958-74年爱尔兰乳制品行业的合并过程，分析国家、行业和企业层面的战略意图与行动如何共同推动产业演化，并构建了描述性和解释性过程模型。
SUMMARY The research reported in this paper sets out to study empirically the process by which an industry evolves, and to examine how this process is related to the process of strategic change at the level of the firm. In this way it extends the study of strategic change to change processes that involve strategic intention and action at national, industry and firm levels of the social structure. The particular multilevel change process chosen for empirical examination, using a longitudinal‐processual methodology, was the amalgamation process of 1958–74 in the Irish dairy industry. The paper examines the genesis, progression and outcome of this multilevel change process in its full historical context. The empirical analysis generates a descriptive and explanatory model of process which demonstrates the functionality and importance of political and cultural rationalities, alongside economic rationality, in the determination of the direction, pace and outcome of industry evolution. This model, largely induced from the data, also indicates that the Pettigrew (1985) context‐process‐outcome meta‐framework is a more empirically sound and conceptually useful framework within which to study the linked processes of industry evolution and firm level strategic change than the classic structure‐conduct‐performance model (Bain, 1968) in industrial economics. Finally, the analysis provides some useful insight into the synoptic and incremental character of strategic change processes which informs the synoptic‐incremental debate in the strategy literature.