Towards a taxonomy of strategic research in the IMP tradition

The project reported in this article is part of a wider project, the aim of which is to investigate the contribution that interaction and networks (IMP) research has made to the field of strategy (Baraldi et al 2006). The specific aim of the sub-project described here is to develop, from the archive of IMP research, a better understanding of both the implicit and the explicit contributions that IMP research has made to the strategy field. The method employed is a systematic analysis of the IMP research database, using a content analysis approach, with the aim of developing a robust taxonomy of strategic research that has emerged from this body of knowledge. Specifically, this paper concerns itself with the development of the analytical method for this task, and with the presentation of the results of a pilot study conducted on 55 IMP research papers to test the analytical approach