Strategy: Does it Matter? The Case of the Oil Industry

A recent empirical investigation by the author found a statistically significant positive correlation between oil price and share price for a set of companies in the oil industry that included major companies such as BP and Exxon-Mobil. This raises the question of what part strategic decision-making plays in the generation of shareholder value in the oil industry. While on one hand it seems unlikely that it has no effect, given the investment in strategic decision-making, on the other hand this may be considerably less than is commonly believed. Alternatively there may be a complex relationship between the oil price, share price and strategic decision-making. A preliminary literature review indicated that the relationship between these factors remains to be established. The research proposed in this paper is an exploration of this gap in the literature.