The development of strategic management and its relationship with innovation studies

From 1970, scholars interested in business policy began to explore in this field. The concept of "strategic management" emerged and played an important role in the business management process, and leaders attached great importance to this topic. Meanwhile, from the Industrial Revolution to digital technology, a single market to global integration, physical industry to the Internet, the environment and technology keep changing. For managers, how to innovate in business strategies when facing fast-paced technological changes? For scholars, they also want to know whether academic research can fully respond to the changes in technology, social environment, and business models. Based on the changes in technology and the external environment, this paper divides the development of strategic management into four stages, Besides, the method of bibliometrics is used to analyze the research emphases and theoretical development of each stage from literature published in the Strategic Management Journal (SMJ), visualizing the development of strategy theory in different social backgrounds and technology environments, and explores its relationship with innovation studies further: 1.Embryonic Stage (before 1980): scholars focus on the individual level, such as CEO's decision-making, management behaviors; 2.Initial Stage (1980-1995): scholar turns to focus on the organization level, and combining the theory of economics and sociology to explore the pattern of an enterprise's strategic management; 3.Development Stage (1996-2006): with the emergence of knowledge economy, technology, innovation and network externalities have become important issues in business. But, the knowledge changes the pattern of value creation has not been paid much attention by strategy scholars; 4.Transformation Stage (2007-2018): in addition to Internet technologies, the business model aiming at corporate social responsibility has also attracted much attention. During this stage, scholars not only reintegrated the development of strategic management but also established the theoretical basis of the field, which is more connected with innovation.