Table of Contents

List of figures; List of tables; List of contributors; Introduction: What is strategy-as-practice? Damon Golsorkhi, Linda Rouleau, David Seidl and Eero Vaara; Part I. Epistemological Streams: 1. Practice in research: phenomenon, perspective and philosophy Wanda Orlikowski; 2. Epistemological alternatives for researching strategy-as-practice: building and dwelling worldviews Robert Chia and Andreas Rasche; 3. Practice, strategy making and intentionality: a Heideggerian onto-epistemology for strategy-as-practice Haridimos Tsoukas; 4. Constructivist epistemologies in strategy-as-practice research Simon Grand, Johannes Rüegg-Stürm and Widar von Arx; 5. Constructing contribution in 'strategy-as-practice' research Karen Golden-Biddle and Jason Azuma; 6. The challenge of developing cumulative knowledge about strategy-as-practice Ann Langley; Part II. Theoretical Directions: 7. Giddens, structuration theory and strategy-as-practice Richard Whittington; 8. An activity-theory approach to strategy-as-practice Paula Jarzabkowski; 9. A Wittgensteinian perspective on strategizing Saku Mantere; 10. A Bourdieusian perspective on strategizing Marie-Léandre Gomez; 11. A Foucauldian perspective on strategic practice: strategy as the art of (un)folding Florence Allard-Poesi; 12. A narrative approach to strategy-as-practice: strategy-making from texts and narratives Valérie-Inés de La Ville and Eléonore Mounoud; Part III. Methodological Tracks: 13. Broader methods to support new insights into strategizing Anne Sigismund Huff, Anne-Katrin Neyer and Kathrin Möslein; 14. Critical discourse analysis as methodology in strategy-as-practice research Eero Vaara; 15. Researching everyday practice: the ethnomethodological contribution Dalvir Samra-Fredericks; 16. Researching strategists and their identity in practice: building close-with relationships Phyl Johnson, Julia Balogun and Nic Beech; 17. Studying strategizing through narratives of practice Linda Rouleau; Part IV. Application Variations: 18. Institutional change and strategic agency: an empirical analysis of managers' experimentation with routines in strategic decision-making Gerry Johnson, Stuart Smith and Brian Codling; 19. Unpacking the effectivity paradox of strategy workshops: do strategy workshops produce strategic change? Robert MacIntosh, Donald MacLean and David Seidl; 20. Struggling over subjectivity: a critical discourse analysis of strategic development Pikka-Maaria Laine and Eero Vaara; 21. Strategizing and history Mona Ericson and Leif Melin; Index.

Promotional Information

Provides a comprehensive overview of an emerging and growing stream of research in strategic management.

About the Author

Damon Golsorkhi is Assistant Professor of Strategic Management and Sociology at ESC Rouen Business School, France. Linda Rouleau is Professor in the Department of Management at HEC Montreal. David Seidl is Professor of Organization and Management at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Eero Vaara is Professor of Management and Organization at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. He is also Chair of the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) and Permanent Visiting Professor at EMLYON Business School, France.

Reviews

Review of the hardback: 'I enjoyed reading this book. Its various well-written contributions offer rich connections between strategy as praxis (in the original sense of 'doing') and several major modern anthropological, sociological and philosophical theories. For years to come, it will form a valuable intellectual substratum from which truly novel and unexpected research ideas will emerge.' Robert A. Burgelman, Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and author of Strategy is Destiny: How Strategy-Making Shapes a Company's Future (2002)

Review of the hardback: 'The Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice is a significant addition to the growing literature on strategy-as-practice that both consolidates and builds the field. It provides a history and overview and discussion of issues within the field while keeping the boundaries open. The ontological and epistemological contributions deepen the theoretical grounding without constraining it by efforts to create a unified theory. The new case material is exciting and rich. This is a book people will use!' Martha Feldman, University of California, Irvine

Review of the hardback: 'The strategy-as-practice perspective, primarily championed by European scholars, burst upon the intellectual scene only recently but it is already redefining the landscape of strategic management. It is also furthering the long overdue rapprochement between strategic management and organization theory. This handbook provides an excellent and thoughtful reflection upon this new and refreshing perspective and convincingly outlines both its achievements to date as well as its considerable potential. It should become an essential read.' Royston Greenwood, University of Alberta School of Business

Review of the hardback: 'This is an important handbook that will give management scholars an enlightened understanding of the nature and reach of strategy-as-practice as an important new subfield in strategic management research, its intellectual roots and methodological orientations, and its future research directions. Notably, strategy-as-practice promises to enrich the extant strategy literature with European schools of thought that shed new lights on the micro structuring actions of various agents involved in strategy making and how these actions produce macro consequences at the organizational and societal levels.' Quy Huy, INSEAD

'Considering the mainstream (often North American) hegemonic research on strategy and strategic management, this book is a breath of fresh air. For a (critical) organization theorist, in turn, it offers new stuff to be critical about. My verdict: check this out. This book will certainly play a central role in continuing the dialogue about what S-A-P is (or should be) about. The S-A-P community is a force to be reckoned with, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they think of next.' Janne Tienari, Organization