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A Strategy-as-Practice Approach to Strategy Research and Education

Aston Business School, University of Aston

Richard Whittington

Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

This conclusion to the Dialog proposes a strategy-as-practice based approach to bringing strategy research and education closer to practice. Strategy-as-practice rejects the choice, proposed in the previous articles, between theory and practice. The authors argue for strategy research based rigorously on sociological theories of practice. Such research complements the parsimony and generalizability of economics-driven theory, extending strategy research to incorporate the messy realities of doing strategy in practice, with a view to developing theory that is high in accuracy. The authors suggest that practice-based research can also inform strategy teaching by providing students with rich case studies of strategy work as actually practiced, analyzed through such sociological lenses as ethnomethodology, dramaturgy, and institutional theory. Strategy-as-practice research does not aim to give students parsimonious models for analysis or expose them to cases of best practice but rather to help them develop practical wisdom through a better understanding of strategy in practice.

Key Words: strategy-as-practice • relevance • social theories of practice • strategy theory • teaching

This version was published on December 1, 2008

Journal of Management Inquiry, Vol. 17, No. 4, 282-286 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1056492608318150


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