The PIMS program of strategy research - A retrospective appraisal

The article provides a brief overview of the historical background and the early methodological innovations of the PIMS project, which has dominated strategy research between 1975 and 1990. Several findings are discussed, especially the so-called key success factors like market share, product quality, order of market entry and capital intensity. These findings had a considerable impact on the strategy formulation of firms and stimulated subsequent academic research outside the core PIMS program. The article also develops some perspectives for future research on key factors of success. (C) 2002 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.