AbstractThe traditional framework for strategy formulation in the field of business policy is deliberately broad and generalized, so as to encompass an almost limitless number of potentially influential factors. There is also a need for a more focused view, a means for showing similarities and differences among firms and how these relate to strategy formulation—a framework, in other words, that allows companies to be diagnosed by key situational elements and uses these, in turn, to define the appropriate strategy alternatives. What is proposed is a framework based on three familiar key elements—organizational levels, management styles, and stages of growth—integrated with and related to four basic strategy alterna