Composing with Conventions in Strategic Decision-Making

Composer avec les conventions dans la décision stratégique

Thierry Verstraete ()
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Thierry Verstraete: UB - Université de Bordeaux

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Abstract: Purpose-driven organizations operate within ecosystems shaped by heterogeneous expectations, sometimes competing values, and more or less explicit rules. In such complex contexts, strategic reflection cannot be reduced to competitive analysis or to the use of standardized tools. It requires sustained work of appraisal, interpretation, and composition among the conventions that frame actors' coordination. This essay proposes to consider conventions as a central analytical lens for strategic decision-making. It does not aim to prescribe solutions, but to make visible the supports and tensions that need to be taken into account. To this end, it prepares the ground for the design of a heuristic tool for identifying and analyzing conventions, without substituting for actors' judgment or experience. The text advances a strong claim: conventional analysis deserves to be considered as fundamental as competitive analysis. It addresses scholars and students in management and entrepreneurship, as well as practitioners concerned with understanding the conventional underpinnings of strategic decision-making. It is situated within a body of work that conceives strategy as a reflexive process of sense construction, at the intersection of theory and practice.

Keywords: Convention Theory; Rules; Value; Coordination; Managerial tools; Rationalities; Strategic management; Conventions; Strategic decision making; Valeur; Équivocité; Règles; Rationalité; Outillage managérial; Théorie des conventions; Management stratégique; Décision stratégique (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-12-18
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05424633v1
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Published in Les Éditions de l’ADREG. Les Éditions de l’ADREG, 2025, Prolégomènes, 2-916432-02-7

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