Since the early 1990s the CEE markets have undergone a major transition. This has led to changes in ownership for many indigenous firms as they moved from state to private control.
This paper contributes to a gap in existing knowledge by developing understanding of how the realized strategic actions of these firms evolved. In order to contribute to this gap, evolution theory is applied to address the research question: How did the strategic actions of indigenous pharmaceutical firms evolve as the CEE region developed from a planned to a market economy?
This is achieved through longitudinal mapping of the strategic actions realized by firms, comparison of patterns in temporal strategy development, together with identification of factors that appear to have influenced this strategic change process. Using a qualitative research design the paper explores and compares how the realized strategic actions of LEK, Richter, and Pliva evolved from 1992-2005.
The findings highlight a range of factors that had the potential to impact upon the strategic process for these firms. The research also shows that although there were some similarities in the strategic actions realized by the firms, in overall terms each firm packaged its realized strategic actions in a unique way