Participatory group observation – a tool to analyze strategic decision making Christine Vallaster and Oliver Koll Introduction Strategic decision-making processes constitute a central role in marketing theory and practice (Menon et al., 1999; Fiol, 1994; Hart, 1992). However, current research fails to recognize the increasing tendency in organizations to assign groups to solve strategic issues. Therefore the focus on individuals, as often encountered in traditional literature (Calori et al., 1994; Hambrick and Mason, 1984; Melone, 1994), inadequately reflects managerial reality (Lyles and Schwenk, 1992). Even if the focus is on decision making at a group level, a static instead of a dynamic perspective is usually adopted (Forbes and Milliken, 1999; Pegels et al., 2000; Schwenk, 1995). Most contributions ignore the impact of individual and social perception processes in strategic decision making. The authors propose a research method explicitly attending to the understanding of these processes by drawing from literature in the area of small group decision making and human resource management. Academic contributions in these fields assert that various factors jointly affect long-term results of group decision making: cognitive variables - as for example information search, ability to process information, perception and interpretation of stimuli (Day et al., 1995); affective variables - such as identification with the group, satisfaction, commitment, group attachment, role ambiguity, role conflict, group member relationship, perceived discrimination (Milliken and Martins, 1996); and communication-oriented variables - like communication competence, style of interaction (Watson and Kumar,1992) A process perspective to researching the relationship between these factors seems to have great potential for expanding marketing knowledge and improving marketing practice. How these variables may jointly affect strategic decisions will be outlined in the following section. Research framework for analyzing strategic decision making: the interrelatedness of cognitive, affective and communicative variables During the process of strategic decision making, acquisition and interpretation of The authors Christine Vallaster is an Assistant Professor, Department of Value Process Management Marketing Group, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria. Oliver Koll is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at HEC Montreal, Montreal, Canada Keywords Research, Decision making, Groups Abstract Group decisions have taken a prominent part in strategic decision making but managerial research still lacks techniques to study these interpersonal processes comprehensively. Assuming that efficient decision making depends on shared cognitive structures within groups, an approach to analyze these structures and the affective and communicative dimensions causing convergence/ divergence of individual cognitions is introduced. Suitable methods to study these variables are discussed and applied in an actual strategic decision to be made by a management team. The method shows a high degree of realism and preciseness in analyzing strategic group decisions. Electronic access The research register for this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregisters The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/1352-2752.htm 40 Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal Volume 5 . Number 1 . 2002 . pp. 40±57 # MCB UP Limited . ISSN 1352-2752 DOI 10.1108/13522750210414508