This paper analyses 26 years of strategic management research published in Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly and Strategic Management Journal. Through a content analysis, it studies the relationships between the subfields of strategic management. A multiple correspondence analysis provides a map of keywords and authors, and a framework to track this literature over the 26‐year period. A discussion of future pathways in the strategic management literature is also provided.

The embedding of new management knowledge in project-based organization is made particularly problematic due to the attenuated links that exist between organization-wide change initiatives and project management practice. To explore the complex processes involved in change in project-based organization, this paper draws upon a case study of change within the UK construction industry. Analysing the case study through the lens of structuration theory (Giddens 1984), the paper examines the complex, recursive relationship that links change in project management practice with the peculiarities of that context. The findings demonstrate that a number of features of project-based organization — namely, decentralization, short-term emphasis on project performance and distributed work practices — are critically important in understanding the shaping and embedding of new management practice.

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Understanding and effecting change in project-based forms of organization is made difficult by the dispersed nature of management practices in such organizations and their effects upon the reinforcement of localized practices and routines that militate against the spread oforganization-wide change initiatives. Taking a perspective that is informed by the “situated” approach to knowledge and learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991), this paper focuses upon the role of organizational routines (Becker, 2004) in constraining or enabling the spread of new management practices within the firm. Drawing upon four case studies of change within UK construction firms, the paper examines the relationship between new and existing management practices and routines, focusing upon the effects of agency and managerial power and influence. Two key dimensions are revealed that influence the nature and extent of change: the extent to which new management initiatives interfere with existing project management practices; and the extent to which they disrupt the balance of power/knowledge within the organization. Implications for understanding and managing change in project-based organ-ization are drawn out and assessed.

Biomedical innovation typically involves intense collaboration across diverse disciplines, occupations and organizations. Given this, a nation's integrative capabilities (the ability to move between basic science and clinical development) and relational capabilities (the ability to collaborate with diverse organizations) have been identified as crucial for encouraging innovation. However, the impact of such capabilities on innovation has been considered, to date, mainly in macro, structural terms -explaining US national competitive advantage, for example. This paper draws, instead, from a qualitative analysis of biomedical innovation in the UK and US to identify mechanisms influencing innovation at the project level through which macro level capabilities may be having effects. From this we develop a propositional framework that helps to explain the likely impact of such capabilities for characteristically different kinds of innovation projects at the micro level.