Influences on strategic decision effectiveness: Development and test of an integrative model

This paper draws upon three broad perspectives on the strategic decision-making process in order to develop a more completely specified model of strategic decision effectiveness in a different context, namely Egypt. The key variables in this model consist of three strategic decision-making process dimensions (rationality, intuition, and political behavior); seven moderating variables concerning decision-specific, environmental, and organizational factors; and strategic decision effectiveness as an outcome variable. A two-stage study was conducted in which the first stage provided exploratory insights and the second stage investigated hypotheses on the impact of strategic decision-making process dimensions on strategic decision effectiveness and the moderating role of broader contextual variables. The second-stage study produced three major findings: (1) both rational and political processes appear to have more influence on strategic decision effectiveness than does intuition; (2) strategic decision effectiveness is both process- and context-specific; and (3) certain results support the 'culture-free' argument, while others support the 'culture-specific' argument.