TITLE:
Small Businesses Can Enhance Strategic Insights by Text Mining Organizational Writings
AUTHORS:
Ross A. Jackson, Brian L. Heath
KEYWORDS:
Organizational Decision-Making, Corpus-Based Approach, Leadership, Sensemaking, Employee Engagement
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Industrial and Business Management,
Vol.13 No.8,
August
24,
2023
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to examine the
potential of textual analysis techniques to inform strategy development in a
small business. An evidence-informed, theoretical framework was developed
moving from abstract ideas and concerns to enhanced strategic insights through
an application of the textual analysis
techniques of term frequencies, n-gram frequencies, and thematic
analysis to an author-created corpus comprised of 250 independent writings
created by firm leadership. The findings of this study suggest that term and
bigram frequencies, along with AI-identified themes are useful for revealing
points of strategic focus and concern. Correlation analysis of term-usage
preferences between the participants provided a rigorous and objective approach
for assessing and establishing the degree of strategic alignment between the
founder and senior partner. This research provides a foundation for engaging
more consistently with organizational strategy development by reducing the
randomness associated with impromptu participation in strategic meetings and
contributes to the research literature on applied textual analysis and strategy
development.