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Project hindsight: Exploring necessity and possibility in cycles of structuration and co-evolution

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Stephen Procter

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Abstract

The successful management of strategic change requires an understanding of which moves are possible in specific contexts, and thus of how specific contexts variously require, forbid, or permit certain organizational or policy actions. Appreciation of such modal issues of necessity and possibility thus becomes essential in understanding organizational and technological dynamics. This paper introduces the concept of modal narratives: forms of analytically structured narrative that explore questions of necessity, possibility and contingency. After a brief review of two common types of modal narrative - counterfactuals and scenarios - the potential of a third form is suggested: the superfactual. An extended example of a superfactual is provided in the Project Hindsight case, and the implications for strategic action are discussed.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Clark P, Booth C, Rowlinson M, Procter S, Delahaye A

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

Year: 2007

Volume: 19

Issue: 1

Pages: 83-97

ISSN (print): 0953-7325

ISSN (electronic): 1465-3990

Publisher: Routledge

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09537320601065365

DOI: 10.1080/09537320601065365

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