Strategizing of China's major players: a Bourdieusian perspective

Abstract

Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose Bourdieu's theory of practice (TOP) as a useful framework for conceptualizing agents' strategizing by considering players' strategizing as based on their habituses and capitals as well as their assessments of their relevant field(s). Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on Bourdieu's theory to better understand the strategizing of some of China's major players. The basic concepts of the model – strategy, field, habitus, and capital – are defined and developed for the major players studied. Findings – This paper conceptualizes the strategizing as a dynamic set of players playing within and between multiple fields. It applies the fractality – in social space – of Bourdieu's TOP into specific agents or fields not only encompassing but going beyond isolated cognitive, cultural, and institutional considerations of one or more players to offer the possibility of taking into account structure and agency, variability and commonality and diverse degrees of granularity and heterogeneity. Originality/value – Most strategy research considers strategizing from either a structuralist or a rational perspective. The paper adds comprehensiveness to strategy studies and improves strategy's identification by applying Bourdieu's TOP. In addition, the paper expands the level of attention previously given by Bourdieu's TOP to commonality and diversity as well as to multiple levels by visualizing Bourdieu's TOP in a fractal fashion.