Bridging practice and process research to study transient manifestations of strategy

Laurent Mirabeau, Steve Maguire and Cynthia Hardy

Strategic Management Journal, 2018, vol. 39, issue 3, 582-605

Abstract: Research Summary: At the intersection of Strategy Process (SP) and Strategy‐as‐Practice (SAP) research lies the focal phenomenon they share—strategy, which manifests itself in a variety of ways: intended, realized, deliberate, emergent, unrealized, and ephemeral strategy. We present a methodology comprised of three stages that, when integrated in the manner we suggest, permit a rich operationalization and tracking of strategy content for all manifestations. We illustrate the utility of our methodology for bridging SP and SAP research by theorizing practices that are more likely to give rise to unrealized and ephemeral strategy, identifying their likely consequences, and presenting a research agenda for studying these transient manifestations. Managerial Summary: Managers know well that, sometimes for good reasons and other times with negative consequences for organizations, not all aspects of strategic plans are implemented with fidelity, resulting in unrealized strategy; and not all bottom‐up projects receive the middle‐management support they need to become realized, resulting in ephemeral strategy making. Surprisingly, however, these transient manifestations of strategy receive little attention in the scholarly literature. Our paper addresses this gap by presenting a methodology for tracking all six manifestations of strategy (intended, realized, deliberate, emergent, unrealized, and ephemeral strategy), highlighting the interdependent relations among them. It also describes strategy making practices that are likely to give rise to the two transient manifestations, i.e., unrealized and ephemeral strategy, as well as their consequences for subsequent strategy making.

Date: 2018
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