ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to identify the problem area and hard core assumptions of strategic theorising and research. It attempts to identify what makes some studies categorised within 'strategy' paradigm or research programme. The chapter also discusses the scientific status of strategic management discipline. It attempts to identify the problem area of the field and the hard core assumptions of strategic thinking and research respectively. The chapter also raises the question whether the main approaches to strategy, positioning and resource-based, are competing or complementary. Nevertheless, disciplinary fragmentation has certainly presented a serious obstacle to scientific growth of the field of strategic management. Contrary to the positioning approach's outside-in perspective, the resource-based approach to the economics of the firm differentials takes an inside-out organisational perspective to explain interfirm differentials. The performance differentials were then attributed to the differences in strategy-following behaviour of firms such as different product approaches, organisational forms, marketing, and distributions.
