Strategy scholarship on temporal rhythms focuses on the benefits of entraining (i.e., synchronizing) a focal firm’s rhythms with a dominant rhythm in its industry. The logic is that shared temporal rhythms help firms organize activities, whereas not entraining causes inefficiencies that limit competitive advantage. We offer a counterpoint to this logic by explicating how types of intentional non-entrainment (i.e., asynchrony) can produce sustainable competitive advantages. We explore this elemental conformity-versus-distinctiveness temporal contrast by developing a typology that integrates fundamental rhythm constructs—frequency and scope—with industry velocity and managers’ temporal cognitions. The result is a series of propositions relating different types of strategic non-entrainment (i.e., temporal uncoupling) to a focal firm’s competitive advantage. The underlying mechanisms, which flow from Durkheim’s ideas on modern societies’ needs for interpersonal differentiation and temporal complementarity, are the non-entrained rhythms themselves. Specifically, managerially initiated strategic rhythms activate firm-level competitive advantages—especially, differentiation and focus—in novel ways. We contribute to strategic rhythms literature by showing how deviations from a dominant industry rhythm’s frequency or scope can provide top managers with a wider array of strategic options than does entrainment
