The Ansoff‐Stewart Connection: A Micro‐History of Holistic Strategic Management at Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and Stanford Research Institute
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: ABSTRACT This paper examines the overlooked connection between H. Igor Ansoff and Robert F. Stewart, first at Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and later at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). Drawing on archival evidence, bibliometric analysis, and counterfactual historiography, this study demonstrates how their joint work laid the early foundations of holistic strategic management. At Lockheed, Ansoff's research on external diversification under Stewart's guidance provided the conceptual seeds for Corporate Strategy (1965). At SRI, their collaboration through the Long Range Planning Service (LRPS) and the Theory And Practice of Planning (TAPP) group linked systematic planning with entrepreneurial behavior, as Stewart termed it, ‘organized entrepreneurship.’ These exchanges integrated extrapolative planning techniques with strategic initiative, forming the basis of the holistic school of strategic management. The paper contributes to the field by clarifying the intellectual lineage between Ansoff and Stewart and by documenting the role of underrecognized institutional actors in shaping the field's foundations. This reappraisal advances historiography and informs contemporary strategy scholarship.
Source: Strategic Change
DOI: 10.1002/jsc.70053
Author: Finn Birger Lie
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7129066439