MIMETIC ISOMORPHISM IN STRATEGY: A TOOL FOR INVESTIGATION

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to illustrate how a tool for analyzing strategic positioning, based on Personal Constructs Psychology, may help in identifying strategic isomorphism, adding to a greater integration between institutional and cognitive approaches to strategy. The paper also contributes in the development of research instruments that may be applied in studies of strategy formation under the institutional and cognitive approaches. A convenience sample of 14 small business owner-managers, who were attending an executive education program, supplied information about their firms and competitors. The collected data evidenced the possibility of using the research tool, demonstrating the operationalization and use of repertory grid, that seems to be adequate for evidencing of isomorphic process at the strategic level. The main contribution of the paper is the systematization of procedures for data collection of perceptions of competitors allowing for a lesser degree of interference of researchers’ subjectivity in identifying isomorphic processes.