The Impact of Ontology on Organisation Strategy: A Critical Validation and Appraisal

This research aims to develop a strategy ontology that integrates pertinent strategy concepts in support of enhancing the practice of strategy development. Through adopting a pragmatism philosophy, the study applies a mixed methods approach. Strategy models and theories that inform the formalisation of essential strategy objects and their associated semantics are extensively reviewed, providing a robust foundation for understanding and managing strategy within organisations. Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) is employed to validate and correct the orchestration of semantics, ensuring accuracy and coherence in the representation of strategy concepts. Additionally, FCA is used as a vehicle to explore the dependencies associated with semantic pathways and uncover the pertinent strategy ontology patterns that facilitate a deeper understanding of strategy. The strategy models review alongside the semantic analysis driven through FCA, informs the development of a strategy ontology meta-model. This model serves as the basis for a proposed lifecycle framework. The framework outlines the typical steps undertaken throughout the lifecycle of strategy development, incorporating formalised concepts, semantics, and associated models. To demonstrate the applicability of the strategy ontology, an action case is presented illustrating efficacy. The case challenge is associated with a real-world local government enterprise resource planning (ERP) application strategy scenario. The action case evidences how the strategy ontology can inform strategic analysis and enhance stakeholder communication. The resulting strategy artefacts informed by the ontology lead to enhanced visibility and understanding of how applications and technology drive digital services. They also support and enable the corporate strategy. The integration and alignment traces itself through to business unit level artefacts, revealing a “Golden thread through not just from the strategy, but then as we start to unravel the opening layers of the technology stack as well.” Overall, this thesis contributes to the advancement of strategy management by providing a comprehensive strategy ontology informed by rigorous theory and practical application. The resulting artefacts from the action case serve as evidence towards the efficacy and utility of the strategy ontology. They demonstrate an ability to guide strategy initiatives within organisations