The River Metaphor for Strategic Management

This article introduces a new metaphor for strategic management, namely, that of the strategy river. In comparison with the frequently used concept of path-dependency, the strategy river emphasizes time and timing, co-evolutionary interplay between strategies and institutional environments, strategic momentum and the systemic nature of decision-making. Based on the scrutiny of its theoretical underpinnings, we argue that the strategy river metaphor is based on an alternative paradigm of organizational evolution. Furthermore, the river metaphor is perceived with respect to many realities of managerial decision-making.