Adapting Adaptation: Expanding Adaptive Strategy Theory to Account for the East Asian Business Context

This paper extends international business theory by providing insights into contextual boundaries of the dominant strategic adaptation model, based on assumptions of low power distance and a bottom-up management style. We challenge them by examining the context of Asian organizations with contrasting management style and ask how it is possible for them to adapt. We propose a supplementary “top-down” model of adaptation, supported by empirical data from East Asian organizations. The model involves low autonomy of lower- and middle-level managers, but fluid communication from bottom to top, enabling informed but authoritarian adaptive decision-making exclusively at the behest of top management.