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Chapter 11 - A Narrativity Approach to Strategy as Practice: Strategy-Making from Texts and Narratives

from Part II - Theoretical Resources: Social Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2025

By
Valérie-Inès de la Ville  and
Eléonore Mounoud
Edited by
Damon Golsorkhi ,
Linda Rouleau ,
David Seidl  and
Eero Vaara
Damon Golsorkhi
Affiliation:
emlyon Business School
Linda Rouleau
Affiliation:
HEC Montréal
David Seidl
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich
Eero Vaara
Affiliation:
Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
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Summary

Valérie-Inès de La Ville and Eléonore Mounoud outline a narrative approach to strategy as practice. They draw on the work of Paul Riceour and Michel de Certeau to elucidate the various narrative practices that constitute an inherent part of strategy and strategizing. This involves the production of texts in strategy formulation, but also the consumption of texts in the ‘implementation’ of strategies. They offer a model that focuses on the writing and reading of texts and narratives as ongoing activities in organizations. This view allows one to understand the crucial role of strategy texts and ongoing interpretations in strategizing – and thus challenges the conventional view that focuses on formal strategies without considering the ways in which they are ‘talked into being’.

Keywords

strategy as practicepractice approachnarrativestrategy formulation
Type
Chapter
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Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice , pp. 194 - 211
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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