Little systematic research has been done on strategy implementation, yet there is a body of work providing guidance for implementation efforts. The authors examine three basic collections of work on resources and governance, managing human capital, and accounting-based control systems, explaining how these issues have implications for strategy implementation. Although the chapters in this Handbook provide many useful insights concerning issues that must be addressed in order to effectively implement firms’ strategies, there is need for more and systematic work. The purposes of this final chapter are to identify promising future research directions and to serve as a catalyst for the creation of additional collections of work that can enhance our understanding of strategy implementation. The five specific topics for which more work on strategy implementation is needed are innovation and entrepreneurship, marketing strategies and services, managing operations, managing financial assets and human capital, and strategies (international, acquisitions, differentiation).
Letter from the Editor-in-Chief: The JIBS Decade Award: Integrating international acquisitions
