A Historical Review of Swedish Strategy Research and the Rigor-Relevance Gap (Elements in Business Strategy)

There are many explanations for the so-called rigor-relevance gap in academic research on strategic management. This Element reviews the existing literature on the matter and argues that it must go beyond the typical explanations of knowledge and language differences and look at more fundamental, societal, and cultural explanations. The empirical focus of this Element is the history and possible particularities of strategic management research in Sweden where the authors show how almost 300 years of relevance-centered research have undergone significant changes over the last 30 years, and that the historical development is based very much on societal pressure, academic culture and shifting perspectives on the role of academic research. The authors conclude by offering a couple of examples of how Swedish research, close to its traditional approaches, still can contribute to relevance and thus help balance the rigor-relevance divide.