Strategic Management and Myopia

This book investigates the phenomenon of strategic myopia, which refers to important cognitive distortions that managers systematically display. It captures narrow views and preferences, which are likely to hurt firms’ long-term prospects. Instead of accusing managers of imperfections, opportunism, or blindness, this book explains how strategic myopia stems from individual dispositions, how it is shaped by team contingencies, and encouraged by organizations’ design. The reader will learn how a metaphor introduced to explain business failure evolved over decades to become a concept useful in understanding intertemporal choices, technology substitution, competitive advantage erosion, competitive blindspots, and missed opportunities. In addition to explaining the mechanisms that encourage myopic behaviors, readers are offered a set of effective ways to address strategic myopia. A key benefit of this work is that the structure of the book allows the use of chapters separately. The core message is that eliminating strategic myopia is hardly possible, and may actually hurt the firms’ short-term efficiency. However, organizations may develop capabilities, and implement designs that favor balancing the short-term benefits of myopia and alleviate its long-term drawbacks. This book will be of interest to scholars, researchers, advanced students and experienced managers in the fields of strategic management and organizational behavior.