Strategic Management as a Synthesis of Economic and Managerial Theories of the Firm

Research on the foundations of competitive strategy and the resource-based approach to the theory of the firm seems to confirm the hypothesis that strategic management is an example of the mutual permeability of economic and management theories. Achievements in both of these disciplines seem to have a complementary character - progress in the former is a condition for the evolution of the latter, and vice versa. Moreover, it seems that for both, cognitive and practical reasons, further integration of economic and managerial theories of the firm is a foregone conclusion. There are not many arguments, however, that would support the thesis that this integration may lead to a synthesis resulting in the creation of one, universal theory of the firm. It is highly probable that on the one hand, many theories will exist alongside as complementary approaches and, on the other hand, some theories will eliminate others.