Strategic management as multi-contextual sensemaking in intermediate organizations

Traditional strategic theory often provides limited means for dealing with the strategic management problems of organizations operating between societal sectors. This article thus uses the case of three industrial development organizations in developing an understanding of strategic management in organizations that operate under multi-contextual conditions. It is concluded that such organizations lack any clear mandate to act, any sound resource base, or any domain of their own, and that all these have to be created as part of the organizations' strategic management process. The implications of this line of reasoning for the general strategic management process are discussed in the closing section of the article.