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The DOI matches its Crossref record; 64 of the 64 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The science of complexity: An alternative perspective for strategic change processes

Stacey, Ralph D.·1995·Strategic Management Journal

Abstract

The two perspectives of strategy process most firmly established in the literature—strategic choice and ecology—assume the same about system dynamics: negative feedback processes driving successful systems (individual organizations or populations of organizations) toward predictable equilibrium states of adaptation to the environment. This paper proposes a third perspective, that of complex adaptive systems. The framework is provided by the modern science of complexity: the study of nonlinear and network feedback systems, incorporating theories of chaos, artificial life, self‐organization and emergent order. Here system dynamics are characterized by positive and negative feedback as systems coevolve far from equilibrium, in a self‐organizing manner, toward unpredictable long‐term outcomes.

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Metadata

Authors
Stacey, R. D.
Venue
Strategic Management Journal
Publisher
Wiley
Published
1995-01
Volume
16
Issue
6
Pages
477-495
ISSN
  • 0143-2095 (ISSN-L)
  • 1097-0266
OpenAlex
W2127927554
Cited by
1,039
References
64
FWCI
15.81
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The science of complexity: An alternative perspective for strategic change processes. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1002/smj.4250160606
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Stacey, R. D. (1995). The science of complexity: An alternative perspective for strategic change processes. Strategic Management Journal. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250160606

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.