Operating just inside the frame provided by these external contextual factors is an organization’s strategy formulation and
control system. This system is represented as an iterative process of strategic analysis, strategy formulation, and strategy
evaluation. Some of the major influences shaping the outcome of an organization’s strategy formulation and control process
are its external and internal contextual factors. Irrespective of one’s view on the origin of strategy – namely whether it is the
result of a deliberate process (Ansoff, 1980; Porter, 1985) or the unpredictable outcome of what emerges from the eventual
convergence of multiple personal strategies (Mintzberg, 1973; Mintzberg & Lampel, 1999; Mintzberg &Waters, 1985) – there
will always be an interplay between the formulation and control of an organization’s strategy and its external and internal
contextual factors.