Strategic management is a youthful discipline. Its origins date back to the 1960s, with its roots to be found mainly in the seminal publications by Chandler and Andrews. Since then, it has evolved significantly, becoming an ever more mature and consolidated field within the realm of management.

The discipline's progress toward maturity has been accompanied by several factors. First, there has been a marked increase in the range of topics addressed. The study of “best practices” in the 1960s has given way to an analysis of such varied topics as internationalization, cooperation between firms, strategies and competition in the markets for products and factors, strategic leadership, and the relationship between a firm's strategy and its corporate social responsibility, to name just a few.

Second, there has been significant growth in the range of research methods used, with these becoming steadily more sophisticated. In-depth case studies have been largely replaced by the use of quantitative tools based on complex econometric techniques, multilevel analysis and, more recently, hybrid methodologies, whereby a single study combines quantitative and qualitative techniques, with each being adapted to the nature of the problem to be analyzed.

Third, and finally, the academic community interested in strategy research has been growing steadily, not just in terms of the number of scholars dedicated to this field but also their international nature as well as the linkages among them. If we take our yardstick to be the publication Strategic Management Journal, we can see how cooperation has been increasing between scholars from both an inter-institutional and an international perspective. Furthermore, the Strategic Management Society currently has almost 3000 members from more than 80 countries.