Middle managers (MMs) are playing an increasingly important role in the era of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). They are central to effective strategy formulation and implementation, and thus are one of the sources of firms’ competitive advantage. Previous research has studied middle managers’ impact on corporate entrepreneurship (Ren and Guo, 2011; Burgess, 2013), product innovation (Grimpe et al, 2019), corporate strategy formulation (O’Shannassy, ​​2014) and strategy implementation (Hirte, 2018). All these studies share the premise that middle managers are central to explaining key organizational outcomes.

While previous studies have demonstrated the importance of middle managers in the strategy process, they lack a comprehensive understanding of MMs’ roles and behaviors. First, there are insufficient theories to explain how MMs influence organizational outcomes and integrate their multiple roles. Second, little research has provided a systematic understanding of MMs’ dynamic interactions with their situated environments, especially in the digital age, resulting in a lack of insight into the role of middle management in strategy formation. Third, neither have these studies paid attention to the unique roles played by MMs in China, where both formal and informal institutions differ dramatically from those of developed economies.

This paper offers a comprehensive review of the literature on MMs. First, we systematize the conceptualization of MMs and explain their roles in the strategy process; then we identifiy MMs’ roles in strategy decision-making and strategy implementation respectively; finally, we suggest that future research needs to incorporate the institutional environment, social culture and digital economy with Chinese characteristics into the middle manager framework. This paper constructs a conceptual framework for middle management research, clarifies the role mechanism of middle managers in the strategic process, and proposes future research directions in the Chinese context, laying the foundation for further promoting the development of middle management research.