Business Development as Internal Strategic Partner

Internal Strategic Partnership is an emerging role within the everyday practices of strategic management in organisations. This role caters for improved decision making, communication, and a culture of collaboration in the context of strategy formulation and implementation. However, this role is under-researched and its understanding in the literature is limited. In this paper we address the topic of Internal Strategic Partnership by drawing on two empirical case studies conducted with large technology companies in Greece, the United Arab Emirates, and the Gulf Cooperation Council. This way, we provide a number of new insights and recommendations with respect to developing Internal Strategic Partnership in organisations, including the important characteristics required for cultivating such a strategic role. In particular, we explore Business Development department as a promising candidate for leading the Internal Strategic Partnership. As a result, we offer a novel contribution to future strategy research and practice.