Environmental Demands and Strategy Construction in Mexican Research and Development Centers

The paper presents an analysis of strategy development processes in research R&D centers, under restrictive and turbulent environmental conditions. Knowledge organizations in less developed economies have particular characteristics: high level professional personnel, unique and intensive work processes, high external resource dependence, and a high environmental uncertainty level. In this context, strategy development process is different from equivalent processes in other organizations. What kind of strategies do research and development centers develop in restrictive and turbulent contexts? Through which processes are strategies defined? Where in the organization is strategy shaped? How are strategies and organizational learning processes related? Theoretically, the analysis is done under the structuring theory and organizational learning perspective. Fieldwork comprises five intensive organizational case studies, which include content analysis of more than 150 semi-structured interviews with managers, research and engineering personnel, technicians and administrative workers. They also include an analysis of formal documents and fieldwork. Results show how different kinds of strategies are defined in R&D centers, and their relationship with organizational learning processes. Emphasis is made on the way strategy links environmental demands with internal resources and processes