The intellectual structure of the strategic management field: an author co‐citation analysis

Abstract This paper complements a recent study by Ramos‐Rodriguez and Ruiz‐Navarro (2004) that investigated the intellectual structure of the strategic management field through co‐citation analysis. By using authors as the units of analysis and incorporating all the citations that are included in the Science Citation Index and the Social Science Citation Index, we trace the evolution of the intellectual structure of the strategic management field during the period 1980–2000. Using a variety of data analytic techniques such as multidimensional scaling, factor analysis, and Pathfinder analysis, we (1) delineate the subfields that constitute the intellectual structure of strategic management; (2) determine the relationships between the subfields; (3) identify authors who play a pivotal role in bridging two or more conceptual domains of research; and (4) graphically map the intellectual structure in two‐dimensional space in order to visualize spatial distances between intellectual themes. The analysis provides insights about the influence of individual authors as well as changes in their influence over time. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.