Rethinking strategy through Microfoundations :
new insights for Strategic Management

June 2025 | Download the Call for Papers here (PDF, French and English) >>

Guest Editors:

Majdi Ben Selma, ESG-UQAM, University of Quebec at Montreal (Ben_Selma.majdi@uqam.ca)

Hela Chebbi, Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France (Gulsun.Altintas@uphf.fr)

Larissa Marchiori Pacheco, Northeastern University, Boston, USA (l.marchioripacheco@northeastern.edu)

DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIAL ISSUE

Given the increasingly dynamic and ever-changing business environment, a deep understanding of the factors underlying strategic decision-making by executives is essential. In this perspective, understanding microfoundations can help shape companies’ strategic orientations and align executives’ values with those of the organization.

Microfoundations refer to the examination of processes, structures, individual behaviors, and interactions that influence organizational decisions and outcomes (Felin & Foss, 2005; Felin et al., 2012). This approach has become increasingly influential in strategic management research (Ben Selma et al., 2024; Hock-Doepgen et al., 2025; Palmié et al., 2023; Foss & Pedersen, 2016). It seeks to understand how actions and interactions at the micro level (e.g., individual profile) lead to macro-level outcomes (e.g., organizational).

This approach has been applied in several research studies that provide insights into the foundations of strategic management in innovation (Ben Selma et al., 2024; Hock-Doepgen, 2025; Meegan & Allen, 2022; Fallon-Byrne & Harney, 2017; Palmié et al., 2023); internationalization (Chebbi et al., 2023; Santangelo et al., 2024; Ambos et al., 2025); organizational ambidexterity (Martin et al., 2017; Tarba et al., 2020; Huang et al., 2021); change management (Laureiro-Martínez et al., 2015); absorptive capacity (Lewin, 2011); Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) (Pacheco et al., 2018); and more generally, dynamic capabilities (Laviolette, 2019; Teece, 2007; Altintas, 2020; Altintas, 2023; Hock-Doepgen et al., 2025) and strategic decision-making within organizations.

Indeed, several studies have focused on individual characteristics, such as motivation (Jansen et al., 2009) and the cognitive abilities of individuals in building higher-order capabilities (Duran et al., 2022; Adner & Helfat, 2003). Thus, Adner and Helfat (2003) highlight the importance of three managerial characteristics: human capital (manager’s experience), social capital (manager’s network), and managerial cognition (mental model serving as the basis for decision-making). Furthermore, several researchers have emphasized the importance of organizational structure (e.g., agility) as a microfoundation of social innovation (Vézina et al., 2019) and internationalization (Chebbi et al., 2023; Neesen et al., 2019). Regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR), Borah, Dogbe and Marwa (2025: 912) suggest the concept of green dynamic capability, which “refers to firm’s ability to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing business environment, while prioritizing sustainability and environmental responsibility”. In this perspective, Borland et al. (2016) advanced the literature on dynamic capabilities’ microfoundations for ecological sustainability by proposing two new dynamic capabilities’ components to sensing, seizing and transforming: remapping and reaping (Borland et al., 2016). Thus, it is only recently that researchers have begun to examine CRS’s antecedents (Gond et al., 2017; Pacheco et al., 2018), such as executive commitment and individual values (Muller & Kolk, 2010).

Despite the development of research on microfoundations in strategic management, the findings remain limited. On the one hand, some researchers point out that the perspective offered by this approach is very focused on the individual (Wang et al., 2021). The latter is considered the fundamental level of analysis (Felin and Foss, 2005) and explores how individual behavior contributes to the design and implementation of various strategic decisions within an organization. Other researchers have also recognized the importance of interdependencies between individuals and organizations (Palmié et al., 2023). They emphasize that the "micro" level of the microfoundations paradigm "should not be limited to individuals but can encompass collective actors" (Foss and Pedersen, 2016). On the other hand, the literature identifies major challenges related to conceptualization, as well as methodological issues, including the level of analysis, causality, reconciliation between individual and collective concepts, and the aggregation from the micro to the macro level.

Finally, despite the demonstrated potential of the microfoundations approach to advancing our
understanding of the foundations of strategic decision-making, recent calls warn of the risks of
fragmentation (Raffaelli et al., 2019). This special issue aims to bridge this gap by connecting
the different perspectives of microfoundations in strategy. This involves developing new
knowledge on antecedents, mechanisms, processes, and practices that impact the making of
strategy. It is therefore important to better understand the development of strategy and its
translation into cognitive processes that articulate structures and individuals.

This special issue thus aims to:

• Clarify the contribution of microfoundations to understanding strategic decisions.

• Examine the mechanisms through which individual and collective factors influence the
strategic orientations of companies.

• Structure an integrative theoretical framework that links microfoundations to key concepts in
strategic management (innovation, competitive advantage, dynamic capabilities, etc.).

• Address methodological challenges related to the study of microfoundations, particularly
regarding the articulation between levels of analysis and appropriate quantitative and qualitative
approaches.

• Propose perspectives for the future of research on microfoundations in strategic management.

These objectives raise several research questions that this special issue seeks to address:
More specifically, this call aims to answer the following questions:

• How do microfoundations provide scientific added value to strategic management?

• How do companies organize themselves to identify, seize, and reconfigure their resources and
competencies?

• What processes, mechanisms, and individual factors facilitate or inhibit innovation
capabilities?

• What personality traits and motivations of leaders influence strategic decision-making?

• How can digital technologies be used to better manage the interaction between the individual,
structural, and organizational levels?

• What new practices are organizations integrating into their operations to develop this microorganizational
perspective?

• What methodological design should be implemented to study microfoundations in strategy?

• How does our understanding of sustainable competitive advantage evolve with the
microfoundations approach?

Researchers interested are invited to submit their contributions on the following topics, among
others:

• The individual, structural, and process levels and their interactions: understanding how these
different levels articulate to influence organizational strategy.

• Microfoundations and strategic knowledge management: role of individual and collective
competencies in strategic information management.

• Microfoundations and innovation: identification of cognitive and organizational processes
promoting or inhibiting innovation.

• Organizational ambidexterity and microfoundations: study of exploration and exploitation
capabilities through the lens of microfoundations.

• Roles of individuals and teams in strategic decision-making: impact of personal characteristics
of executives and teams on strategy formulation and execution.

• Microfoundations and organizational agility: how individual and collective dynamics foster
strategic adaptation.

• Microfoundations and internationalization: exploration of micro-organizational determinants
influencing companies' international expansion.

• Microfoundations and corporate social responsibility: link between executive individual
commitment and strategic orientations in corporate social responsibility.

• Methodological approaches and challenges related to the analysis of microfoundations:
longitudinal studies, quantitative modeling, mixed methods, etc.

• Digital technologies and microfoundations: impact of digital tools on managing interactions
between individual, structural, and organizational levels.

Keywords: microfoundations, strategic decisions, individual behavior, structure, process,
organizational dynamics, growth strategy.

 

Manuscript Submission Information

About the Journal

M@n@gement is the first open access journal in management, strategy and organization theory. This well-ranked, double-blind peer-reviewed journal has been publishing original research articles improving our understanding of organizational phenomena for more than 20 years.

Submission Guidelines

• All manuscripts should be submitted through the M@n@gement Online Submission System
• Authors should select the title of the special issue as the section to which they are submitting.
  Additionally, it is important to specify in the cover letter whether you are submitting to the
  ‘Original Research Articles’ section, the ‘Business Voice’ section, or the ‘Essays’ section.
• Submissions must fully follow the Author Guidelines for M@n@gement

Submission deadline: January 30, 2026

Authors considering submitting a paper to this special issue will have the opportunity to participate in a dedicated paper development workshop. This workshop, which will be held online, is scheduled for October 22, 2025.

Read the full Call for Papers and information here >>

 

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