Success in Changing Environments

Manuela Stoll focuses on two strategies to address change: adapting to change and creating change. Using a large-scale survey among top executives of manufacturing firms in Germany, she evaluates the importance of a range of resources, competences, and "isolating mechanisms" (shields against imitation) for the success of these strategies. She shows that adapting to change has an important effect on firm performance and is mainly influenced by a firm's industry foresight abilities. She also illustrates how these abilities can be strengthened.