战略行为理论模型：视野半径、社会期望与动态学习

The behavior theory of the firm is a fundamental and promising theoretical lens in explaining dynamic development of firms. However, there are three major gaps in current mainstream research. First, there is little research extending the aspirational goals beyond business performance measurement. Second, social aspirations are usually measured as the average or median performance of all firms within the same industry. This approach is relative static and ignores the firm heterogeneity in goal settings and aspiration adjusting over time. Third, the dominant paradigm of large-sample empirical testing of performance feedback mechanism is relatively mature and there is constrained space for theoretical development. Realistic inspirations through qualitative research methods are badly needed. An opportunity to make a theoretical breakthrough by dynamicizing the notion of social aspiration is identified. Renewal of social aspiration (RSA) is defined by considering the change of the reference point of social aspiration. By incorporating the attention-based view and dynamic learning perspective, we also develop a new notion called horizon of vision. Vision is fundamental in the domain of strategic management. Our central proposition is that alteration of the firm's horizon of vision leads to renewal of social aspirations, which consequently affect the revision of the cognitive map of firm strategy and the adjustment of strategic logic in making choice decisions. There are possibilities that both horizon of vision and social aspirations are conversely affected by firm’s revision of cognitive map and its adjustment of strategic logic. The process of dynamic learning characterizes the whole loop – forward and backward. Dynamic learning is more socially oriented, evolving and likely fuzzy and punctuating. This research project is intended to identify factors, conditions and mechanisms that help understand how horizon of vision and the renewal of firm’s social aspiration is inter-related and how they collectively affect firm’s dynamic behavior in achieving strategic growth in the new era of globalization and digitalization. Aiming to revise the behavioral theory of the firm and construct a behavioral theory of strategy, this research will primarily employ qualitative research method. The revised theory will contribute to both the strategy literature and to the practice.

企业行为理论（BTF）所具有的解释企业动态成长的潜质还远没有发挥出来，主要原因有三：一是没有把期望之比较基准拓展到经营绩效之外；二是社会期望（Social Aspiratoin）一直被想当然地看成是同行业所有企业的绩效平均值决定的，因而在研究分析中被当成不变的；三是大样本假设检验的主导范式使质性研究方法被严重忽视，缺乏获取新理论灵感的源泉。本课题旨在基于中国情境通过深度的典型案例研究来突破之：结合注意力基础观并引入动态学习视角，提出视野半径改变（Alteration）和社会期望更新（Renewal）的全新理论概念，试图理解影响企业视野半径改变的因素、条件和机制，又如何导致社会期望的参考基准乃至坐标系的平移和切换，再进而影响到战略认知地图修订和战略选择逻辑的调整。本课题将创建一个揭示动态学习过程的企业战略行为理论模型，为转型升级时代的中国企业战略管理实践提供崭新的理论视角。

项目组按照项目申请书中设定的研究框架和研究思路执行项目研究，总体上比较顺利，成果丰硕。我们采用了定性和定量两种研究方法，尤其是定性研究方法，覆盖面广，深入性强，收获极大。此外，我们还创造性地进行了现场实验，深入参与企业战略实践，对研究中已经获得的战略行为理论、思想和管理模式进行了提炼，同时也获得了新的研究灵感。该项目取得了多方面的研究成果，包括发表了一篇文献综述论文，出版了一本学术专著，在国内外管理类期刊杂志上发表了多篇实证论文，开发和编写了多个管理案例，并收录在国内权威的管理案例库中。成果的后续转化仍有很大潜力。研究结果和成果对企业战略行为中的视野半径、社会预期和动态学习之间的相互作用有了更深入的理解，对战略选择理论、动态能力理论和企业行为理论的文献有所贡献，为下一步进一步构建中国特色的战略行为理论奠定了坚实的基础。