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 Richard Whittington 

Courses taught

MBA Strategy

Expertise

The practice of strategy.
Long-run and comparative perspectives on management.
Strategic skills and learning.

Overview

Richard Whittington teaches strategy at the Saïd Business School and New College, where he is Millman Fellow in Business.

Amongst Richard's nine books are the prize-winning What is Strategy - and Does it matter? and the biggest selling strategy textbook in Europe, Exploring Strategy.  His research has featured regularly in the Financial Times, the Sunday times and People Management.  He has published in leading journals such as the Journal of Management Studies, Organization Science, Organization Studies and the Srategic Management Journal.

Richard has held full or visiting appointments at the Harvard Business School, HEC Paris, Imperial College, the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Toulouse and the Warwick Business School.

Current research

Richard Whittington's current main research interest is building a 'practice' perspective on strategy (www.strategy-as-practice.org). His central project here is on the Evolution of Strategy Practice, setting contemporary changes in strategic planning practice within an historical perspective.

Project Links

Learning to Strategise
The Evolution of Strategy Practice

Books


G. Johnson, R.Whittington and K.Scholes, Exploring Corporate Strategy, 9th Edition, Pearson, 2010.

G. Johnson, K. Scholes and R.Whittington, Fundamentals of Strategy, Pearson, 2008

G. Johnson, A. Langley, L. Melin and R. Whittington, Strategy as Practice: Research Directions and Resources, Cambridge University Press, 2007

Pettigrew, A., Whittington, R., Melin, L., Sanchez-Rundes, C., Ruigrok, W., & Van den Bosch, F., Innovative Forms of Organising, Sage, 2003.

Pettigrew, A., Thomas, H., & Whittington, R., The Handbook of Strategy and Management, Sage, 2001.

Whittington, R., & Mayer, M., The European Corporation: Strategy, Structure, and Social Science, Oxford University Press, 2000.

Whittington, R., What is Strategy - And Does it Matter?, International Thomson, 2000 (2nd edition).

Brownlie, D., Saren, M., Wensley, R., & Whittington, R., Rethinking Marketing, Sage, 1999.

Whittington, R., Corporate Strategies in Recession and Recovery: Social Structures and Strategic Choice, Unwin Hyman, 1989

 

Journal articles (ten years):

Whittington, R., The Practice Turn in Organization Research:  Towards a Disciplined Transdisciplinarity, Accounting Organizations and Society, 2011, 36, 3, 183-86*

Whittington, R., Basak-Yakis, B. and Cailluet L., Opening Strategy: Evolution of a Precarious Profession, British Journal of Management, 2011, 22, 3, 531-44.

Hung S-C and Whittington R., 'Agency in national innovation systems: Institutional entrepreneurship and the professionalization of Taiwanese IT', Research Policy, 2011, 40, 4, 526-538

Whittington R. 'More SSOP: Commentary on the Special Issue', Business History, 2011, 53,1, 169-173

P. Jarzabkowski and R. Whittington, ‘A Strategy-as-Practice Approach to Strategy Research and Education’, Journal of Management Inquiry, 2008, 282-88

P. Jarzabkowski and R. Whittington, ‘Directions for a Troubled Discipline – Strategy  Research, Teaching and Practice’, Journal of Management Inquiry, 2008, 268-71

Whittington R., 'Alfred D. Chandler, Founder of Strategy: a Lost Tradition and Renewed Inspiration', Business History Review, July, 2008

Whittington R. and Cailluet L., 'The Crafts of Strategy: Introduction to Themed Issue', Long Range Plannnig, June, 2008

Jarzabkowski P. and Whittington R., 'Hard to Disagree, Much: a Comment on Carter, Clegg and Kornberger' Strategic Organization, February, 2008

Whittington R. 'Strategy Practice and Strategy Process: Family Differences and the Sociological Eye', Organization Studies, 28, 10, 2007

Whittington R. 'Editor's Introduction: Comparative Perspectives on the Managerial Revolution', Business History, 49, 4, 2007, pp. 399-404.

Whititington R, Molloy E, Mayer M., Smith A. 'Practices of Strategising/Organising: Broadening Strategy Work and Skills, Long Range Planning, 39, 6, 2006 pp. 615-29

Whittington R. 'Learning more from Failure: Practice and Process', Organization Studies, 27, 12, 2006,  pp. 1903-06

Hodgkinson G, Whittington R., Johnson G and Schwarz M., 'The Role of Strategy Workshops in Strategy Development Processes', Long Range Planning, 39, 5, 2006,  pp. 479-496

Whittington R. 'Completing the Practice Turn in Strategy Reseach', Organization Studies, 27, 5, 2006, pp. 613-634

Molloy E. and Whittington R., 'Organising Organising: the Practice inside the Process', Advances in Strategic Management, 2005, 22, pp. 491-515

M. Mayer and R. Whittington, 'Economics, Politics and Nations', Journal of Management Studies, Vol.41, 7, 2004, pp.1057-1082.

Whittington R., 'Strategy after Modernism: Recovering Practice', European Management Review, Vol.1, 1, 2004, pp.62-68.

Mayer M., & Whittington R., 'Diversification in Context: a Cross National and Cross Temporal Extension', Strategic Management Journal, Vol.24, 2003, pp.773-781.

Johnson, G., Melin, L., & Whittington, R., 'Micro-Strategy and Strategising', Journal of Management Studies, Vol.40:1, 2003, pp.3-22.

Whittington, R., Jarzabkowski, P., Mayer, M., Mounoud, E., Nahapiet, J., & Rouleau, L., 'Taking Strategy Seriously: Responsibility and Reform for an Important Social Practice', Journal of Management Inquiry, Vol.12:4, 2003.

Whittington, R., 'The Work of Strategising and Organising: for a Practice Perspective', Strategic Organisation, Vol.1:1, 2003, pp.56-65.

Whittington, R., & Mayer, M., 'Response to Kay: Chandlerism in Post-War Europe: Strategic and Structural Change in France, Germany and the UK, 1950-1993: a Comment', Industrial and Corporate Change, Vol.11:1, 2002, pp.199-206.

Hung, S.-C. & Whittington, R., 'Playing by the Rules: Institutional Foundations of Success and Failure in the Taiwanese Computer Industry', Journal of Business Research, Vol.47:1, 2000, pp.47-53.

Whittington, R., Mayer, M., & Curto, F., 'Chandlerianism in Post-War Europe: Strategy and Structure in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, 1950-1993', Industrial and Corporate Change, Vol.8:3, 1999, pp.519-551.

Whittington, R., Pettigrew, A., Peck, S., Fenton, E., & Conyon, M., 'Change and Complementarities in the New Competitive Landscape: A European Panel Study, 1992-1996', Organization Science, Vol.10:5, 1999, pp.583-600.

 

Book chapters (ten years):

Whittington, R. 'Giddens, Structuration Theory and Srategy-as-Practice', in D Golsorkhi, Rouleau L., Seidl D and Vaara E (eds), Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice, Cambridge University Press, 2010

Whittington, R. ‘Both “Leif” and “Melin”’, in Melander, A. & Nordqvist, (eds). Att förstå strategi: processuella och kontextuella perspektiv, Lund: Studentlitteratur, 2007

Molloy, E and Whittington, R, ‘Reorganisation Projects and Five Uncertainties' in Hodgson, D and Cicmil, S (eds) Making Projects Critical, London: Palgrave, 2006Johnson G., Melin L., and Whittington R., 'Micro-Strategy and Strategising', in: Floyd S., Roos, J., Jacobs C. and Kellermans F. (Ed.), Innovating Strategy Process, Blackwell, 2005.

Pettigrew, A., & Whittington, R., 'Complementarities in Action: Competition and Change in BP and Unilever, 1985-2000', in: Pettigrew, A., Whittington, R., Melin, L., Ruigrok, W., Sanchez-Runde, C., & Van den Bosch, F. (Ed.), Innovative Forms of Organizing, Sage, 2003.

Whittington, R., & Pettigrew, A., 'Complementarities, Change and Performance', in: Pettigrew, A., Whittington, R., Melin, L., Ruigrok, W., Sanchez-Runde, C., & Van den Bosch, F. (Ed.), Innovative Forms of Organizing, Sage, 2003.

Whittington, R., 'Corporate Structure', in: Campbell, A., & Faulkner, D. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Strategy, Oxford University Press, 2003.

Whittington, R. & Melin, L., 'Organizing/Strategizing', in: Pettigrew, A., Whittington, R., Melin, L., Ruigrok, W., Sanchez-Runde, C., & Van den Bosch, F. (Ed.), Innovative Forms of Organizing, Sage, 2003.

Whittington, R., 'Competitive Strategy', The Complete MBA Companion in Management, FT/Prentice Hall, 2002.

Whittington, R., Pettigrew, A., & Thomas, H., 'Conclusions: Doing More in Strategy Research', in: Pettigrew, A., Thomas, H., & Whittington, R. (Ed.), The Handbook of Strategy and Management, Sage, 2002.

Whittington, R., 'Corporate Structure: from Policy to Practice', in: Pettigrew, A., Thomas, H., & Whittington, R. (Ed.), The Handbook of Strategy and Management, Sage, 2002.

Pettigrew, A., Thomas, H., & Whittington, R., 'Strategic Management: the Strengths and Limitations of a Field', in: Pettigrew, A., Thomas, H., & Whittington, R. (Ed.), The Handbook of Strategy and Management, Sage, 2002.

Contact Details

Saïd Business School
University of Oxford
Park End Street
Oxford
OX1 1HP
UK

Richard.Whittington@sbs.ox.ac.uk 

+44 (0)1865 288931