Understanding and Managing Strategic Governance

This book focuses on strategic governance, which pertains to the influence of governance actors (those whose interests are directly or indirectly tied to firms and therefore motivated to influence firm strategic decisions, e.g., the board of directors, institutional investors, and securities analysts) on important strategic decisions. It will focus on two key issues: . First, the authors examine the influence of governance actors on strategic decisions and the quality of such decisions. They give special attention to unintended consequences of governance actors on strategic decisions and complement their analyses with unique datasets that they have collected over the years. Second, they provide managerial guidance on leveraging governance actors and managing conflicting interests to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. The interests of governance actors are often not aligned with each other in the short term, and governance actors may impose conflicting demands on corporate executives. Therefore, it is important for executives to understand and manage such conflicting demands and avoid strategic pitfalls that can harm firms' long-term competitiveness.

The first two chapters provide an overview of strategic governance and introduces internal and external governance actors around the globe. The authors then organize the following chapters along the influences of internal and external governance actors on corporate strategy, competitive strategy, innovation strategy and corporate entrepreneurship, global strategy, stakeholder strategy, and nonmarket strategy. They also discuss managerial guidance on how to leverage governance actors to make successful strategic decisions. The last chapter concludes the book by discussing emerging new trends, future research opportunities, and implications for managers, and regulatory and policy implications.