برنامه PIMS تحقیقات استراتژی : ارزیابی گذشته نگر

The article provides a brief overview of the historical background and the early methodological innovations of the PIMS project, which has dominated strategy research between 1975 and 1990. Several findings are discussed, especially the so-called key success factors like market share, product quality, order of market entry and capital intensity. These findings had a considerable impact on the strategy formulation of firms and stimulated subsequent academic research outside the core PIMS program. The article also develops some perspectives for future research on key factors of success.

The year 2000 marked the 30th anniversary of the PIMS program of research on business strategy and performance. The Strategic Planning Institute (SPI), where PIMS was housed after 1975, recently closed its office in Cambridge, MA. PIMS Europe, SPI's overseas affiliate, continues in operation with several offices in London and elsewhere. But PIMS is effectively out of business in North America. In addition, the flow of research publications based on PIMS data, once a steady stream, has dwindled to a trickle. This seems an appropriate time to consider how the PIMS research has affected management thinking, how it has influenced subsequent research, and what lessons can be drawn from all of this for future work. The discussion that follows is a personal perspective of the author, who was actively involved in the PIMS research from its inception until the late 1980s. I have not attempted to provide a review or “meta-analysis” of all of the research that has been done on all of the topics covered by PIMS. Some useful reviews of several of these areas have been published, and these are mentioned in appropriate sections below.