1. ¹EPPS and SOM, University of Texas, Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA
2. ²Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
3. ³College of Business Administration, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA

Correspondence: Rachel Croson, EPPS and SOM, University of Texas, Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080-3021, USA. Tel: +1 972 883-6016; Fax: +1 972 883-6486; E-mail: crosonr@utdallas.edu

Abstract

Research in corporate strategy has come a long way since its early days as a purely case-based investigation. Today, corporate strategy theory draws not only on ideas from many disciplines, but has also developed its own concepts to better describe and predict strategic behavior. Methodologically, however, modern corporate strategy research relies primarily on observational methods using large data sets, developed either from primary or archival sources. We argue for an increased use of experiments to address the current integrative and interdisciplinary theory in corporate strategy and to complement existing methods. We review the few experiments in corporate strategy research, and describe the advantages and limitations of the experimental method.