INTRODUCTION:Academic interest in the association between strategic decision-making speed and firm performance emerged initially when Bourgeois

and Eisenhardt identified a positive association between fast strategic decision-making and firm performance. There are few subsequent empirical studies of strategic decision speed; however, management advisors have repeatedly prescribed fast decision-making as a source of competitive advantage, and practitioners claim they increasingly make strategic decisions in less time.

OBJECTIVES:Our objectives are: 1) To clarify the relationship between strategic decision speed and firm performance. 2) To better understand the forces that impact strategic decision speed.

RESULTS:Our results suggest that aspects of organization design and environmental selection that are within managerial control are capable of influencing the speed with which strategic decisions can be made.