Competitive institutional strategies : development and testing of a new generic typology

This dissertation aims to address extant lacunae in literature, in the fields of competitive strategy, institutionalism and corporate governance, by developing an integrated framework of the business environment and a generic typology of strategies therein. Current research mainly does not acknowledge that firms can act strategically, as opposed to deterministically, in the context of institutional influences, to achieve competitive outcomes, alongside compliance outcomes. Also, competitive strategy typologies rarely acknowledge such interaction with institutions, and further, such typologies do not take into account the strategic nature of corporate governance activities.DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (NBS