The research validates many of previous research on emergent strategy in the context of independent video game industry while also providing additional insights. Selecting emergent dominant strategies is crucial for independent companies in the video gaming industry to avoid failure in such a complex environment. Using qualitative case studies based on secondary interviews and secondary document data, the research was able to track strategies in these companies. Following features were prevalent among them. The companies showed low focus on control and more focus on providing employees with the power to make decision and form strategies. They are always adapting, learning and evolving rather than sticking to a pre-defined long-term plan. These properties have helped them in achieving commercially successful product in many ways.
Costumer needs are strongly understood and met by employees who are in direct interaction with customer because there is no filter in-between, as teams are bottom up. This helps in building the right product that the customers want. Being bottom up also helps to bring personal touch into projects and helps in differentiation. Differentiation is also helped by experimental learning aspect of emergent strategies. It was also found that cost reduction can be achieved by emergent strategy by avoiding hierarchies and improving decision making time frame. Better and creative decisions are made as employees are dealing with full range of knowledge all the time, so the related decisions are best left to them instead of central vision.
Due to the experimental approach, companies can also put out innovative games and products in the market. We can also see improvement in employee motivation because of meaningful contribution they can offer and better connection with the team, thus improving retention as well. All these can help provide competitive advantages as well. Emergent strategy also allowed for better opportunity recognition and risk avoidance along with crisis navigation. Additionally, bigger mistakes which would have costed company a lot were avoided by constantly testing assumptions of the company. Learning can also help avoid the noise which is present everywhere in current environmental context. This can help make right decisions. Doing ambitious project which would not have been done otherwise are also achieved with the implementation of emergent strategy. By having emergent strategy in place, companies can turn adversity into advantage.
Also, all these studios show success from very first game. Without the success of first game, it would have been difficult for them to continue with other games. It is found that that while emergent strategy helps them stay independent, independence also helps to practice emergent strategy by not being interfered by investor and shareholders. Thus, both go hand in hand. As in the literature, our case also confirms that fully emergent strategy is not possible, there will always be some form of deliberation present no matter what. It is also true that some kind of hierarchy cannot be avoided as the team size grows because of necessity and in some cases out of power necessity.
5.1 Limitations
Even though, the research has been done ethically from the researcher’s end, some misinformation intentionally or unintentionally might be given by founders and team members from the companies we talked about. Additionally, while there was an interest to carry out case studies for many studios, due to time limitation, it was practically impossible. The research draws from four companies case studies. However, it would have been more beneficial for the research to include more cases. It also helps to see problems created by emergent strategy and what kind of steps should be avoided to make the practise of emergent strategy more concreate. Seeing deliberate dominant strategy would also be important as case studies. The study is limited to companies which are from the UK and the USA. It could also include cases from other countries which are more complex in environmental factor.
5.2 Recommendations
Based on the limitation, it is recommended to study different independent companies in greater number to make the study more concreate. It can be useful to study problems created by emergent strategy which has resulted in failed games as case studies, but it might be difficult through secondary data as unsuccessful stories are available in low number in secondary form. It can also be helpful to conduct a study based on primary data, if possible, to avoid biases. Future research could benefit from direct access to company stakeholders through interviews or participant observation to explore these internal elements in greater detail. Additionally, future research can include study about non-independent companies on how they implement emergent strategy and how it benefits them. Future research can also dive into comparative analysis of emergent vs deliberate strategies within the gaming industry to determine which approach is better under certain conditions.