The eclectic roots of strategy implementation research

The researcher interested in strategy implementation faces a formidable cha llenge. Although this area has drawn many calls for research attention, the re is not a deep and cohesive body of prior. literature on which to draw in developing new efforts. This study proposes that through taking a broadene d perspective of the nature of implementation, a range of valuable insights for the implementation researcher is available. First, various conceptuali zations and definitions of implementation that have bren proposed are consi dered Next, a broad range of literature fields that have direct and indirec t implications for the study of strategy implementation are reviewed. This review is organized around a framework that distinguishes between structura l cmd interpersonal process reviews of implementation. Insights for the imp lementation researcher are highlighted. Finally, future directions for impl ementation research are proposed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.