Doctoral research · University of Wollongong
Holding Change Together
What happens after a company buys a business, splits one up, or makes another big strategic move?
The decision has a date. The strategy has a life after it.
A company can sign a deal or announce a new structure while people are still working out how it will work. Responsibilities need to be clear. Teams and businesses still depend on one another. Some problems remain long after the announcement.
Dave studies strategy by following what happens after these big decisions. Each event provides a starting point for comparing companies over time.
A completed deal does not automatically mean a successful strategy. The study keeps those two questions separate.
Following strategy beyond the event.
The cases include companies buying, selling, merging, splitting, or restructuring businesses. Dave compares records from before and after each decision to follow what happened next.
Building an explanation from the records.
Holding Change Together is the title of the thesis and names the explanation developed through the analysis. The research starts with a strategy question: what happens after a company makes a big move?
The academic field
The study sits in strategy and strategic renewal—the research term for how a business changes its direction, activities, or capabilities. Events such as acquisitions and separations provide dates around which Dave compares the evidence.
The study uses Glaserian grounded theory. In plain terms, Dave compares material within and between cases, writes analytical memos, and follows emerging questions back into the evidence. The explanation is developed through that comparison rather than fitted to a predetermined model of strategy or renewal.
Public records provide a recurring account of formal arrangements, disclosed claims, and reported actions. They do not provide direct access to every internal conversation or private intention.
How the evidence is treated
A company’s statement, a formal agreement, a reported action, and Dave’s interpretation are kept distinct. A report that an action occurred is not automatically evidence that it achieved its intended effect.
The cases are not a statistical sample or a ranking of successful and unsuccessful organisations. The study’s explanation is bounded by the records and periods examined.
For people responsible for strategic decisions.
For leaders, announcing the strategy is only the beginning. The research asks what people and businesses need to keep doing afterwards, and what company records can tell us about that work.
The related keynote explores what it takes to make organisational strategy work. It draws on Dave’s strategy experience and the questions informing his research; it does not promise competitive advantage from a talk or present an unfinished thesis as peer-reviewed evidence.
PhD in progress.
Dave is completing the doctoral study at the University of Wollongong. The degree has not been awarded.
This is a public overview of the question, study design, and scope. The full thesis and detailed findings will be shared through the academic examination and publication process.