BMP6002: Business Management Assessment 2022

1
BSc Business Management
BMP6002
Strategic Management
Semester 2 Assessment in Replacement for the Examination
Module Leader: Ian McDonald
Student number: 2008727
Module title: BMP6002 Strategic Management
World count: 2663
Due Date: 17/05/2021

2
Section 1: Critically compare and contrast the application of ‘prescriptive’ and ‘emergent’
approaches to strategy and outline their role in the delivery of this aim. Where possible use examples
drawn from the literature to support points you put forward.
Organisations are guided by goals and objectives that inform their operations and strategic
decisions. Lynch (2015) pointed out that strategy within an organisation is created at the business
and corporate levels. The business-level strategies seek to widen the customer base for
sustainable competitive advantage. On the other hand, the corporate level strategies involve a
pattern of objectives and purposes that define the leadership and culture of the organisation.
Overall, businesses develop and implement strategies to get the highest value to the shareholders
through improved performance (Seifzadeh & Rowe, 2019). With a high level of commitment to
strategy, the managers seek to make a difference in their competitiveness in both the short- and
long-term periods. This is the basis of reliance on emergent and prescriptive strategic approaches
to improve performance and realise sustainable competitive advantages. Therefore, this essay
seeks to compare and contrast the emergent and prescriptive strategies in accomplishing the
corporate goals.
Emergent Strategy
According to Lynch (2015), strategy is created based on the perception of the leaders or
managers regarding the market situation. When they perceive the future to be uncertain and
characterised by constant challenges that compromise the realisation of goals, they are likely to
avoid longer-term approaches to business. Instead, the managers will develop a dynamic
approach to strategy by taking risk considerations. The emergent strategy involves a continuous
pursuit of market opportunities as they emerge through experimentation to enhance the
competitive advantage of a firm (James, 2018). Shah et al. (2015) argued that emergent strategies
involve a lack of clear objective, and the purpose of the strategy is developed as it proceeds.
Based on the definition of the emergent strategic approaches, some characteristics indicate the
use of emergent strategies, including the inability to predict the future. This is because the
proponents of emergent strategies assume that the business future is subject to changes and
dynamics that cannot be predicted in advance. Therefore, the strategy is a process that evolves
alongside implementation in pursuit of the organisational goal. Shah et al. (2015) refer to the
example of Virgin Group, which continuously scrutinises new opportunities to find out if the

3
organisation can provide something more valuable and better than the existing companies. This
approach is necessitated by the chaotic nature of the business environment and the difficulty to
predict the outcomes require that the business operations and processes are constantly adjusted to
ensure a positive relationship with the external environment and optimum utilisation of internal
resources (Hosseinian-Far & Chang, 2015; Neugebauer, Figge, & Hahn, 2016). Particularly,
Virgin looks at markets where customers do not get value for their money and where existing
companies are complacent to find new market opportunities.
The second characteristic of emergent strategy is the need for the firm to adapt to the changing
environment for survival. Firms are guided by both short term and long-term objectives. The
emergent strategist depends on the learning process to overcome the challenges in the business
environment. For instance, the changes in technology threatened the survival of the European
Telecom companies, given the rising competition from mobile phones (Lynch, 2015). The
survival of the players in the industry depended on how they learn and adapt to the new changes
resulting from the external competition. It implies that an organisation can develop and
implement strategies that maximise value to shareholders through the learning process.
The third feature of the emergent strategy is the need for flexibility through trial and order.
According to Seifzadeh and Rowe (2019), the frequent changes in the market necessitate that
managers diversify their scope of operation to identify and exploit opportunities as they arise
from the market. It implies that the strategy allows for adjustments based on the market changes
and learning due to the challenges. This appears in the case of Honda, which entered the US
market but failed to secure a significant market and remained unsuccessful (Shah et al., 2015).
The continued trial and error in developing the strategy enabled Honda to focus on a niche
market that resulted in the domination of the motorcycle market. A similar approach used by
Facebook has since acquired some of the competitors, including WhatsApp, Instagram, and
oculus, to enhance its business strategy amidst stiff competition (Lynch, 2015).
Prescriptive Strategy
The prescriptive strategy involves setting objectives before implementing the strategy based on
the assumption that the future is predictable. According to Lynch (2015), the proponents of
prescriptive strategy such as Porter and Ansoff were guided by focusing on sustainable
competitive advantage and not the competitors. The strategy involves the analysis of the

4
organisation's internal resources and the level of competition to inform the formulation of the
objectives. Research further shows that the process is structured and directive and rational,
whereby the planners assume to have an understanding of the business environment through
analysis (Shah et al., 2015; Pisano, 2017). The plan involves identifying the best option that
enables the organisation to realise sustainable competitive advantage since it is the resources that
define the organisational capabilities. Lynch (2015) presented the case of Cereal Partners-a joint
venture between General Mills and Nestle that was planned before being rolled out in the
international market. Based on the approach, prescriptive strategy is guided by various
assumptions, including top management’s ability to choose the best options, accurate prediction
of the future, lack of concern for the short-term success, and distinct implementation process that
is separate from the planning process.
Both strategies have been applied in the business in pursuit of the corporate objectives; they have
differences and similarities. In both emergent and prescriptive strategies, the top managers play a
crucial role in approaching the desired direction. For instance, emergent strategies require that
the managers identify and exploit opportunities to pursue business environment changes.
Similarly, the top managers are obliged to select the best options in planning when relying on
prescriptive strategies. Despite the similarities, research shows that the weaknesses in the
assumptions guiding the prescriptive strategies underpinned the development of emergent
strategies (Lynch, 2015).
Therefore, both strategies differ on the approach, implementation, and assumptions that inform
their usage in the business environment. while planned strategy is based on a formal process that
leads to the setting of corporate objectives and the development of a clear organisational strategy
designed to achieve the objectives using the available resources, the environment for an
emergent strategy will always take place in reality. The market environment is constantly
changing and competitors are evolving, emerging, and merging necessitating the application of
the emergent strategy.