ANATOMY OF A FATAL BUSINESS STRATEGY.

The reported interpretive case study is focused on the genesis and the maturation of a catastrophic division-level business strategy and affords an uncommon glimpse of the intraorganizational dynamics of failure. A descriptive account of the focal division's history and the emergence of the fatal strategy provides the backdrop for subsequent diagnoses. Comparative analysis is used to identify salient differences between the focal strategy and the strategies of three sectoral pacesetters; then, the processes that spawned the noted differences are examined within the context of organizational and behavioural decision theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]