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Management Learning, Vol. 36, No. 4, 493-512 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/1350507605058142
© 2005 SAGE Publications

Reducing Causal Ambiguity to Facilitate Strategic Learning

Véronique Ambrosini

Cranfield School of Management, Bedford, UK, v.ambrosini{at}cranfield.ac.uk

Cliff Bowman

Cranfield School of Management, Bedford, UK, c.bowman{at}cranfield.ac.uk

This article reports on a qualitative study conducted within a software company. The study focuses on the strategic learning process within the top management team that was facilitated by the use of causal mapping, which aimed at uncovering the organization's causally ambiguous success factors. The case study we describe is an illustration of how this process allowed the top management team to develop new sets of assumptions about their firm's sources of advantage and gave them new bases for strategy making. Our agenda was both theory and practice led. Our academic agenda was to further knowledge about the processes of strategic learning and causal ambiguity in particular, and our managerial agenda was to help the top management team better understand what underpins their organization's success.

Key Words: causal ambiguity • causal mapping • organizational success • strategic learning


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