Using Single Respondents in Strategy Research
| Published date | 01 June 1997 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.0045 |
| Author | Cliff Bowman,Véronique Ambrosini |
| Date | 01 June 1997 |
Introduction
A survey of empirical papers published in the
Strategic Management Journal has revealed a num-
ber of studies that have used single respondents,
usually the CEO or a member of the top manage-
ment team from a strategic business unit, to make
inferences about certain strategic dimensions of
the business. In this note, we point out some of
the problems in using this approach.
This research is an extension of the ‘consensus’
literature (for example, Bourgeois, 1980; Dess,
1987; Dess and Origer, 1987; Wooldridge and
Floyd, 1990), which has explored inter alia the
links between consensus and performance. These
studies have measured consensus about a variety
of strategic dimensions, for example, goals, means,
competitive strategy and the firm’s environment.
A review of this literature reveals that disagree-
ment among managers, and notably top man-
agers, is not unusual. We argue that if there is a
lack of consensus in a firm about these strategic
dimensions, then relying on a single respondent
for anything other than factual, objective in-
formation may be misleading.
We base our comments on a study of 76 busi-
nesses where multiple respondents were accessed.
We conclude that, because of often wide varia-
tions in responses between members of the same
top team (measured by Cronbach alpha), the use
of single respondents in this type of strategy
research is probably unreliable.
Literature review
The literature dealing with the justification for
using a single respondent to make inferences
about an organization’s situation is not abund-
ant. The two most often cited contributions in the
field of strategic management are by Snow and
Hrebiniak (1980) and Hambrick (1981). Although
holding similar views in many respects, Snow
and Hrebiniak advocate the use of any top man-
ager, whereas Hambrick strongly advises the
use of only the CEO, should the researchers
have no option but to access only one unique
respondent.
Snow and Hrebiniak (1980) affirm that ‘top
managers have the best vantage point for viewing
the entire organizational system’ (1980, p. 320).
They argue that lower level managers do not
have the same access to information about how
the whole organization really works. Hambrick
agrees with this, but he includes in the lower-level
British Journal of Management, Vol. 8, 119–131 (1997)
Using Single Respondents in
Strategy Research1
Cliff Bowman and Véronique Ambrosini
Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University, Bedford MK43 0AL, UK
A survey of empirical papers has revealed a number of studies that have used single
respondents, usually the CEO or a top management team member, to make inferences
about certain strategic dimensions of their business. In this note, we highlight some of
the problems in using this approach. We base our comments on a study of 76 businesses
where multiple respondents were accessed. We conclude that, because of often wide varia-
tions in responses between members of the same top team (measured by Cronbach
alpha), the use of single respondents in this type of strategy research is probably unreliable.
© 1997 British Academy of Management
1The authors are grateful to Andy Bailey, Kevin
Daniels and two BJM reviewers for their comments
and suggestions.
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