Completing the Practice Turn in Strategy Research

TLDR

The paper argues that the current practice turn in strategy research is incomplete because scholars focus either on intra‑organizational strategy activity or on its aggregate extra‑organizational effects. It identifies a practice turn, proposes an integrated framework linking intra‑ and extra‑organizational levels through strategy praxis, practices, and practitioners, and outlines its research implications. The framework integrates these levels by defining strategy praxis, practices, and practitioners, and derives implications for how practices influence praxis, are created and transferred, and shape practitioners. It concludes by highlighting the distinct emphases of the practice perspective within strategy scholarship.

Abstract

This paper identifies a practice turn in current strategy research, treating strategy as something people do. However, it argues that this turn is incomplete in that researchers currently concentrate either on strategy activity at the intra-organizational level or on the aggregate effects of this activity at the extra-organizational level. The paper proposes a framework for strategy research that integrates these two levels based on the three concepts of strategy praxis, strategy practices and strategy practitioners. The paper develops implications of this framework for research, particularly with regard to the impact of strategy practices on strategy praxis, the creation and transfer of strategy practices and the making of strategy practitioners. The paper concludes by outlining the distinctive emphases of the practice perspective within the strategy discipline.