Mintzberg’s strategic-process research shows that organizations rarely follow a fixed plan; instead, strategy often “emerges” incrementally from day-to-day responses to shifts in the external environment. Such continually adjusted patterns of action are termed emergent strategy, in contrast to intended strategy (original plan) or realized strategy (final outcome).

B. Realized strategy is the combination of intended and emergent actions actually carried out, not the incremental process itself.

C. Intended strategy is the deliberate plan formulated beforehand, not what evolves with environmental change.

D. Discarded strategy refers to parts of the original plan that were abandoned, not incremental adaptation.

1. Mintzberg, H., & Waters, J. A. (1985). “Of strategies, deliberate and emergent.” Strategic Management Journal, 6(3), 257-272, pp. 257-259. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250060302

2. MIT OpenCourseWare, 15.902 “Strategic Management,” Lecture 3 slides, section on emergent strategy, p. 5.