Abstract:

This study has been conducted in order to argue how institutionalist views' arguments answer strategic management problems and how the positioning school and the resource based school and its arguments have a place within this discussion. Secondarily, we have attempted to identify the arguments the institutionalist perspective offered as a solution to the main problems of strategic management. Lastly, we have identified to what degree the institutionalist view finds a response within the strategic management discipline and whether the positioning school or the resource based school could offer a third alternative in this context. The results have shown that the institutionalist views offer an explanatory position in solving organizational problems through the positioning school and resource based school's ideas, as these disregard the institutional framework firms are located in. However, as institutionalism has not yet offered a set of theories for the formation and application of strategies, it is regarded as insufficient for the strategic management discipline and thus it is not yet a viable third alternative for the positioning school and resource based school.

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