Corporate Strategy at the Crossroads? Inductive Derivation of a Consensus and Comprehensive Definition

While research in corporate strategy has gained importance over the past five decades, today this sub-field of strategic management is very fragmented and lacks a coherent agenda. Based on a large-scale content analysis of the abstracts of 383 articles published in the top 50 management journals from 1955 to 2008, we inductively develop a consensus and comprehensive definition of corporate strategy. More precisely, drawing upon a distinctive vocabulary obtained by word frequency analysis, three renowned strategic management scholars derive conceptual elements, which we consolidate into a new definition of corporate strategy. The findings indeed suggest that existing definitions of corporate strategy are often ambiguous and too narrow. Contributing to the sub-field's advancement, the new definition serves as a framework that guides future corporate strategy research.